Saving Neopia II: Light and Darkness
by Ohfortheloveofpete
Summary: After defeating Lord Cataclysm, the Heroes of Light go on another adventure to save Neopia from evil. Meanwhile, the Villains of Darkness decide to go on an adventure of their own...albeit for more selfish reasons.
1. Chapter 1: A Familiar Opening

Saving Neopia II: Light and Darkness

_Guess what everyone! I've decided to make a sequel for my story Saving Neopia…why you may ask? Well suffice to say, all the positive reviews I've gotten from my friends have encouraged me to do so…but more specifically I enjoyed writing the previous story and thought maybe it was be a good idea to continue the adventures of my OCS._

_Long story short, after a year of inaction…the Heroes of Light are called up once again to save Neopia from a horrible monster…but they'll also have to deal with a bunch of other crazy villains…_

_Interestingly enough, this story will also feature the Villains of Darkness as protagonists as well...although in that case they will be anti-heroes and will have to deal with those that want to bring them to justice for their actions in the previous story…they never seem to be able escape karma, can't they?_

_So, let's start this chapter, shall we? You might feel some déjà vu since like in the previous story the story's going to start on Roo Island, that's where Bloony lives after all…but it's going to be a bit different this time considering all that happened in the previous story, I can tell you that much._

**Chapter 1: A Familiar Opening**

Bloony sat on his chair, reading his favorite book, Brainy Blumaroos. Ever since he had saved Neopia from the fiend known as Lord Cataclysm who wanted to make everything in Neopia evil, it felt like he could never escape from autograph hunters. Surely they had something better to do than try to get him to sign their books and the like. Or did they really have that much time on their hands? It was a mystery.

Speaking of which, he had always been different from other Blumaroos, who unlike him were always bouncing off the walls. Personally, he liked to just sit back and relax…at least whenever Neopia wasn't in danger anyway. He also didn't like to play games that much, although occasionally he would play a game of Dice-A-Roo. Personally, he thought that the game was rigged, as he always seemed to land on a skull and end up losing all the Neopoints in his pot.

Of course, now that he was now a hero, he was more different from his Blumaroo friends than ever…but they paid that no mind. In fact, practically each and every one of them had a picture of him nowadays now that he was basically a celebrity.

Bloony himself also had a picture…but it was with his friends the Heroes of Light, who had helped him save Neopia in his last adventure. Personally, he was just glad that he had saved Neopia and that there was nothing threatening it. In fact, things had been peaceful for an entire year.

Curious, he decided to read a local newspaper to see if anything was happening. Apparently, there had been a series of robberies in the last week, and the police force was starting to become corrupt. Rumor has it that they were taking bribes. Other reports showed that there had been a level of police brutality, and that an innocent Tuskaninny had the dung beaten out of him.

"That doesn't sound good…" Bloony muttered to himself.

But it didn't seem like anything that was threatening all of Neopia…so he decided that he didn't have to act on it right away unless any of the Blumaroos decided to ask for his help on the matter. Even then, he probably wouldn't need to bother assembling his teammates, considering that he's a fairly decent fighter by himself.

Come to think of it, he hadn't hanged out with his teammates that much ever since he had saved Neopia. Sure, he talked to one of them every once in a while, but other than that he mostly stayed at home and tried to relax…which was made a bit more difficult due to the fact that Blumaroos kept knocking on his door.

Sure enough, there was a knocking noise, and his neighbor Bluigi came in. Bloony immediately put his hand on his face.

"Can I get your autograph?" he asked.

"Bluigi, didn't I give you my autograph yesterday?" questioned Bloony.

"That was my brother Blumio." answered the blue Blumaroo.

"Alright, you asked nicely so I suppose I'll give it to you." agreed the yellow Blumaroo, pulling out his yellow pen.

After signing the autograph (which he was now very quick at doing after all the autographs he had to sign, curiously enough) he decided to look at the picture that had been taken a few hours after Lord Cataclysm was defeated.

In the picture there was Desdemona, the black (or should he say white?) Babaa Dark Faerie that enjoyed helping others rather than using them for personal gain like most Dark Faeries.

There was also Sheldon, the orange Skeith who unlike most of his species was not lazy and was in fact one of the fastest runners around.

He noticed Gary cowering in the picture…apparently he was nervous at getting his picture taken. He was a Purple Grarrl who for some strange reason was timid rather than fierce like most Grarrls tended to be.

He also noticed Ursula, a Blue Usul who was super-strong…and unlike most Usuls was not very feminine in nature. Oddly enough, she seemed to have feelings for Marvin.

He couldn't forget about Marvin, a green Mynci who wasn't wild like most Myncis and instead liked to play video games, he was also very smart and crazy prepared, and had many inventions that came in handy during their adventure. He got the feeling that he liked Ursula a lot.

Last but certainly not least there was Cherry. Interestingly enough, he felt a little funny upon seeing her. She was always somewhat rude and liked to blow raspberries and the like…and yet for some strange reason Bloony thought she was wonderful. Maybe he was in love or something? He wasn't quite sure.

He began to think about the day where they had helped save Neopia from a horrible tyrant that wanted nothing more than destruction and to make Neopia suffer. Together they had vanquished some of Neopia's worst enemies and had made sure that their home would be safe for at least an entire year.

Interestingly enough, during his adventure he had encountered a bunch of crazy Neopets known as the Villains of Darkness, who for some strange reason were different yet similar to them at the same time. They had fought them many times during their last adventure, and they always managed to prevail over them one way or another.

The leader of the group was Snotty, a demented green Blumaroo whose evil scheming and love of twisted games made him the opposite of himself, who was rather laidback and saved Neopia whenever it needed to be saved.

There was also Redtooth, a ferocious blue Lupe who unlike Cherry was rather polite, at least when he wasn't trying to hunt her down and eat her for supper like he usually was.

He also remembered Rocky, a Tyrannian Mynci who unlike Marvin was rather dumb and used his brute strength to attack his enemies…he wondered if he a negative IQ.

He couldn't forget about Jennifer, a red Usul who contrasted Ursula by being a greedy Usul that used rather feminine yet effective gadgets to help steal valuable things.

He also had to deal with Cinder, a ferocious Fire Tonu that was highly aggressive…naturally this made him the opposite of Gary, who always seemed to want to stay out of trouble and yet got into it anyway.

He also couldn't forget about Larry, who unlike Sheldon was very lazy and seemed to want to sleep all day rather than cause trouble among Neopia. Nonetheless, he proved to be useful to the Villains of Darkness, as he could put other people to sleep.

Last of all was Othella, who curiously enough was a Light Faerie. Unlike Desdemona, she was rather crazy and believed that the Heroes of Light were evil and that the Villains of Darkness were good. If only she knew how wrong she was.

He began to wonder what had happened to them ever since the Heroes of Light had gotten tired of their evil deeds and sent them flying away in a catapult. He got the feeling that they had survived, but just what were they up to now?

_Meanwhile at a psychiatrist's office…_

Snotty let out a sad sigh as he entered the psychiatrist's office. He had felt so horrible ever since he had been sent flying away using a catapult. Since then, he had never seen his friends, who had all been sent in different directions. He wasn't sure if they were even OK…had the Faerie of Death gotten them? It plagued him every day what could have happened to them.

And he felt like it was his entire fault, to say the very least. He was the one who got them together to do evil things in the first place. Was being evil really worth it? All that it ever seemed to get him was several cuts and bruises from his encounters with the Heroes of Light, who always seemed to beat him at every turn.

He had tried gathering more members to his group to take them down, but they always seemed to be one step ahead of them and had added a member to their group as well. He had even resorted to using a potion that would temporarily turn them into mutants…which seemed to work well at first, but ultimately they did not succeed and they lost horribly once again.

Worst of all, he was sure that the Villains of Darkness would actually triumph that particular time, and said that was going to be their final battle. Was it really their final battle? Were the Villains of Darkness finally finished? It sure looked that way…

"So, let me get this straight, you did a bunch of horrible things and now you feel horrible about it?" inquired the psychiatrist.

"Yes…it seems that none of my actions have ultimately helped anyone…not even myself." said Snotty sadly.

"I see…so tell me, why did you do all those things to begin with? Did you have a good life? Have people been treating you well?" she asked.

Snotty then flashbacked to when he was still in elementary school.

_A bunch of bullies (specifically a Blue Jetsam, a Red Kougra, and a Green Grarrl) were trying to play basketball…the only problem was that there were no basketballs…apparently someone was already using them._

"_This rots! Where are all the basketballs? We can't play basketball without a basketball!" screamed the Jetsam._

"_Yeah! This really stinks! I was hoping to have some fun!" agreed the Kougra._

"_How are we going to play basketball now?! Are we going to have to play a different game? Good grief." the Grarrl bellowed._

_Suddenly, Snotty came by to the basketball field, and immediately they looked at him._

"_What's the matter? Can I help you?" he asked._

_The bullies immediately began to smile._

"_Hello?" he inquired._

_Out of nowhere, the Green Grarrl picked up Snotty and started bouncing him along the floor._

"_Ow! Quit it!" yelled the young Blumaroo._

_Dribbling the "basketball" past the other two bullies, the green Grarrl tossed him into the basket, sending him crashing down to the floor._

"_Ow…" he whimpered._

_The bullies then began to laugh. Since recess was almost over, they decided to abandon Snotty and head back to the school building._

"_Now that's what I call basketball." laughed the Jetsam._

"_Tell me about it." agreed the Kougra._

_As they went into the school building, Snotty just stood there crying. Why did everyone he ever encountered have to be so cruel?_

"_Why Fyora why?!" he bellowed._

"So…you were used as a basketball?" the psychiatrist continued, curious if Snotty's story really was true.

"Yes…and a football…and a baseball…apparently people took advantage that I was rather short back then. I wonder why the teachers and principal at my school never did anything about my bullying problem…were they lazy or something? I really wish they would have helped me out. I got tired of being bullied." he stated.

"It sounds to me that you had a rough childhood." she replied.

"Yes…I had a rather rough childhood…but it wasn't simply because of all the bullies at my school…there was also the case of my mother…" answered Snotty.

"Your mother? Would you like to explain about that?" questioned the psychiatrist.

"Well you see-"

Suddenly, Snotty was interrupted by the breaking of glass. Apparently someone had jumped through the window. Curious, he decided to see who it was…and immediately dropped his jaw in surprise. It was none other than his best friend, Redtooth!

"Is that really-"

Snotty was interrupted once again when the blue Lupe pounced on top of him and began licking his face. It was rather uncomfortable…apparently Redtooth was really happy to see him.

"Oh my gosh! Never in my life did I expect I would finally find you! I've tried using my sense of smell and asking for directions…but they never seemed to work…up until today!" he exclaimed.

"OK…" murmured Snotty. "So how did you find me?"

"I heard that a green Blumaroo just like you was having an appointment…so I decided to drop in…I suppose I took that a little literally…" he said.

"Ah yes…you always seem ready to pounce…it's a good thing you can pounce long distance, huh?" asked Snotty.

"Yes, it is! Anyways, now that I've finally found you, do you want to go get a milkshake or something? We've been separated for so long…my fur's starting to stand on end!" he said.

"Um, excuse me, can I help you?" asked the psychiatrist.

Redtooth immediately glared at the psychiatrist (who fitting her occupation was a Chia), and for a moment it seemed like he was going to pounce on top of her…

But eventually, he turned to Snotty again, and continued asking him for things that they could do together.

"I suppose we could go get a snack…I'm getting a bit hungry myself." agreed the green Blumaroo.

And so the two of them decided to go to the nearest restaurant and see if they could order anything they liked…

_What's this? It seemed that after a year, the Villains of Darkness are finally getting back together again! Will they commit more atrocities? Will they decide to stop being evil? Who knows?_

_As for the Heroes of Light, they're going to be called back into action very shortly…by the way, are you surprised that Snotty had an excuse for his behavior? You probably thought that he was an outright villain or something…well in a way he is, but in another way he's not I suppose. Either way, they're going to have some crazy adventures…just like the Heroes of Light themselves. Sound like fun?_

_So, are you happy that I've decided to make a sequel? Feel free to tell me in your reviews…of course considering how much you enjoyed my previous fanfic you probably are happy that I decided to create a sequel…but I do want an opinion or two on this chapter…_

_So, please read and review! Or R+R! Or something like that…_


	2. Chapter 2: The Advisor

Saving Neopia II: Light and Darkness

_In this chapter, Bloony will be introduced to Advisor Broo (who we all know is the advisor to King Roo)…Cherry will take a trip to Kreludor…and Snotty and Redtooth will have a run-in with the authorities…things are starting to heat up..._

_This sure is like the last story, isn't it? Then again, it's nice to have some pleasant deja vu every once in a while...although some of you might want to call it nostalgia..._

_So, let's see what happens next...I personally think it's going to be good._

**Chapter 2: The Advisor**

Bloony continued to relax in his room. Interestingly enough, part of him was hoping that something big would happen and he could assemble the Heroes of Light again…as horrible as Lord Cataclysm was, if it weren't for him he probably wouldn't have met his friends in the first place.

Suddenly, he heard knocking on his door, and he immediately groaned. Was somebody trying to get his autograph again? He was sure that he had given his autograph to every Blumaroo on Roo Island by now.

He nonetheless opened the door, and saw Bluigi again.

"Don't tell me you want my autograph again…I've already given it to you like seven different times." he muttered.

"No no! King Roo invited all of us to a meeting! You should come to the castle!" he exclaimed.

Bloony began to feel a little nervous upon this. He had invited all the Blumaroos to his castle last year, and he had ended up having to save Cherry from Snotty, who was using her for a knife-throwing game. Granted, he had ended up unscathed, but still.

"Nobody's gone missing this time, has there? I'm not exactly looking forward to another rescue mission." he asked.

"Er, no, he just wants to introduce us to somebody. Nobody's being kidnapped. Really, I promise!" Bluigi explained.

"Alright." he thought. Perhaps things would be alright after all.

Together, he and Bluigi entered the castle, and saw King Roo greeting all the Blumaroos.

"Salutations, my fellow Blumaroos! Today I would like to introduce you to my new advisor, who calls himself by the name of Broo!"

The Blumaroos once again began to cheer. Funnily enough, they did not notice Bloony entering, and continued looking at King Roo.

"Here he comes now!" exclaimed the monarch.

Sure enough, Advisor Broo came onto stage…and immediately Bloony started to feel nervous. Ever since he had fought evil so many times, he had gained the ability to sense it somewhat…and immediately he began to feel bad vibes upon seeing the sinister Blumaroo.

He didn't seem as happy to see the Blumaroos as King Roo was. In fact, he scowled as soon as they started waving at him.

"Let's give him a few cheers, shall we?" he exclaimed.

"Hip hip hooray!" the Blumaroos all exclaimed.

Advisor Broo immediately stepped off the stage. Apparently, he didn't want to be around the happy-go-lucky Blumaroos any longer. However, as he did so, Bloony noticed that he seemed to be snickering under his breath.

"Now then, you can all go back to your homes." he said.

Our heroic Blumaroo did so, wondering if Broo was plotting against Roo Island and if he wasn't paranoid. Curious, he decided to see the local weather report…as it turns out, it was stormy. He began to recall the day when a storm hit Roo Island…right before the Blumaroos began to become possessed and King Roo transformed into a monster.

Thankfully, the storm looked as if it wasn't going to be nearly as severe as the one that hit the island last year…but Bloony still wasn't very happy about it, and got the feeling that evil would again be visiting his home shortly.

"Oh brother. It looks like I'm probably going to have to save Roo Island once again…I guess I should get ready to fight…of course considering that I haven't had to do so for an entire year I might be a bit rusty." noted Bloony.

And so, our hero decided to get his weapons in case his hunch was right and darkness was once again approaching Roo Island. Still, he wondered if he should contact his friends and see if they could help him fight, just in case.

Come to think of it, he wasn't exactly sure where they were. Were they on vacation? Were they at home? Were they at school? Were they jumping off a building? So many possibilities…

_At Cherry's House…_

Cherry's father was reading a newspaper, eager to learn what was happening in Neopia recently. Of course, he could probably watch TV to check up on current events as well…but for some reason he didn't feel like doing that today.

"Let's see now…oh what's this…it looks like a scientist's making a new invention…interesting…"

Cherry then stepped in the room, and asked what her father was up too.

"Can I see the newspaper?" she asked, curious to see if anything unusual was happening.

"I know you like to read the comics, so sure." he agreed.

Cherry then read the newspaper, and gasped in surprise. On the picture of the newspaper was Professor Nyctus, one of the evildoers she had fought in order to save Neopia. What was he up to now that Lord Cataclysm was dead? She couldn't help but get suspicious.

"He's not plotting to create a monster or something, is he? I've had to deal with enough evil things as it was." she thought.

She recalled that Professor Nyctus had built a bunch of crazy machines to attack her and her friends, and wondered if he was building another giant robot. Then again, he recalled during their final battle that he had ended up being hurtled into space because one of them exploded…

She decided that it was best to keep an eye on him...but she then noted that Bloony would probably want to know where she was going.

So she decided to send a Neomail explaining where she had hopped off too...after all, he might come looking for her in case something bad happened.

_Dear Bloony,_

_Professor Nyctus is at it again! This time he's showing the Grundos a new invention he made...considering he helped Lord Cataclysm in our last adventure he might be up to no good. Since you're the leader of our group I figured I'd ask you what the best plan of action was._

_Sincerely,_

_Cherry_

Due to the fact nature of Neomail, she got a message from Bloony a few minutes later.

_Dear Cherry,_

_Thank you for telling me this...I'm actually dealing with a problem of my own. I believe that King Roo's new advisor is evil, and I'm heading to his castle to see if I can prove that he's up to no good._

_As for Professor Nyctus...seeing though he's making a public demonstration of his new invention I don't think you should be in too much trouble...I in particular heard that he befriended the local Grundos along with his assistant._

_Nonetheless, you might want to start gathering the group together...I personally wonder if Neopia is going to end up in jeopardy again...it was bad enough that Lord Cataclysm threatened in the first time...I just hope that Professor Nyctus doesn't plan to continue his work._

_Basically, to make a long story short, just use your instinct. I personally consider you second-in-the-command of the group and I think you should start making your own decisions._

_Sincerely,_

_Bloony_

Suffice to say, Cherry decided that she should indeed see what Professor Nyctus was up to. Had he really mended his old ways? Or was he just building a new monstrosity? Either way, she decided that she should head to Kreludor herself.

Thankfully, for some strange reason, Neopets were able to breathe in space. Or at least they could breathe on Kreludor. Flying a rocket that was on sale, she headed towards the moon-like planet and decided to see just what Professor Nyctus was doing.

All she could hope was that none of the Grundos would be harmed...hopefully the mad scientist would at least not stoop that low.

_Elsewhere in Neopia..._

"So, tell me, Redtooth, why didn't you attack that Chia? You in particular always enjoyed those Lupe Treats I gave you...or sometimes stole...they didn't cost much to be honest with you." stated Snotty.

"Well, it's a long story...you know how the Heroes of Light sent us flying with that catapult?" Redtooth told him.

"Don't remind me..." answered the green Blumaroo, recalling how he had been sent several feet in the air because the Heroes of Light got tired of the fact that they wouldn't stop doing terrible things.

"Well, after I was sent flying, I ended up crashing into the Haunted Woods...and I ended up having a traumatic experience there." explained the blue Lupe.

_Florg the Mutant Chia was getting ready for his lunch...in this case, it was several adorable-looking Neopets, such as a Kadoatie, Snorkle, Slorg, and even a Babaa he had stolen from old McRonald's farm._

_The poor unfortunate Petpets tried to run away and off of the table, but every time they did so, a metallic hand simply shoved them back on._

_"Yes...soon Florg shall have his lunch, and it shall be delicious! Florg can hardly decide which one he should eat first!" he exclaimed._

_Suddenly, they were a loud crashing noise._

_Florg looked around him, and discovered that his table had been smashed neatly in two. Not only that, but all the Petpets had been flung off the table and were now out of his reach._

_Most peculiar of all, there was a Lupe standing in the middle of the wreckage._

_"Um, hi?" greeted Redtooth._

_"Look what you've done! Because of you Florg is going to have to miss out on lunch! Unless..." Florg stated, licking his lips._

_Redtooth immediately yelped and started running away from the crazy Chia that as it so happened was on the PPL's Most Wanted List._

_As he did so, he noticed that many Petpets were running away from the maniacas well...feeling oddly warm-hearted that day, he decided to grab them and then put them on their back so that they could escape the demented Chia too._

_Thankfully, as it turns out, Florg did not watch where he was going. Soon enough, he slipped over one a Slorg and ended up crashing into a wall. This gave him a nasty concussion and soon he passed out on the floor._

_Soon enough Redtooth and the Petpets that Florg was planning to consume managed to escape the lair...but not before the residents of the Haunted Woods took notice._

_"Hey! I think that Lupe is rescuing Petpets!" exclaimed Wocky._

_"Maybe we should call the PPL and let them know about this!" agreed a Scorchio._

"So...you defeated Florg and rescued a bunch of Petpets from his clutches?" asked Snotty curiously.

"Yes...after that traumatic experience...I decided that maybe I should quit being a cold-blooded predator...and that I should start eating at Pizzaroo or something like you usually do." stated Redtooth.

"I do love Pizzaroo..." agreed Snotty, who suddenly wanted some some hot delicious cheese pizza that was fresh from the oven.

"But you wouldn't believe what happened after that. The day after I escaped from Florg's lair...the PPL came by...they stated that because of me they were able to arrest Florg and that for my efforts they were going to give me a badge." stated Redtooth, pointing to the badge that were now on his chest.

"I was wondering where you got that." stated the green Blumaroo. He started to wonder if he should have a badge too. Was anyone else threatening Petpets?

"They even gave me a Puppyblew...nowadays I'm playing games with him like Fetch and Splat-A-Sloth. Come to think of it, I'm wondering whether we should quit being evil and start doing something nice for a change." questioned the blue Lupe.

"What? That's crazy! Everyone knows that being evil is so much more fun than being good!" exclaimed Snotty. "And it's so much more rewarding!"

"True, but sometimes I feel guilty about everything we've done...in case you haven't noticed, we've got our own wanted posters. What if we get arrested again?" questioned Redtooth.

"We can just break out of jail again! What's the worst the police can do to us?" argued the leader of the Villains of Darkness.

"Alright, freeze!"

The Blumaroo and Lupe looked around them, and discovered that two police officers were aiming bubble guns at them.

"Uh-oh..." stated Redtooth.

"You have the right to remain silent." they stated.

"Like I'll ever surrender." taunted Snotty.

The police responded by unloading their weapons on them. Snotty and Redtooth were immediately pelted with several bubbles. And although they were soft, they still hurt nonetheless.

"Ow! Quit it!" exclaimed the two Neopets.

Unsurprisingly, the Villains of Darkness decided to fight back...and before long, the trigger-happy cops were on the ground. But unsurprisingly, they decided to call for help.

"We need backup! Bring us some healing potions...and some donuts!" they exclaimed.

"You're right Redtooth! Maybe we're better off not being villains!" shouted Snotty.

"Let's get out of here! We have a huge bounty on our heads!" bellowed Redtooth.

Suffice to say, the Villains of Darkness decided to high-tail it out of there...but this wasn't the first time they had a run-in with the authorities...and it certainly wouldn't be the last.

_What's this? It seems like the Villains of Darkness are considering giving up their evil ways...and Cherry is off to space to investigate Professor Nyctus's plans..._

_As for Bloony, he's trying to stop Advisor Broo from whatever evil plan he has concocted...we can all tell he's up to no good, am I right? King Roo really needs better taste in advisors...surely there's a friendly Neopet out there that can keep his kingdom in check...right?_

_In the next chapter...Bloony is going to discover how dangerously mad Advisor Broo is...and Cherry is going to space to see if Professor Nyctus really has quit being evil and what exactly he is creating..._

_As for the Villains of Darkness...they're about to face the leader of the authorities that insist on keeping them locked away...and to make matters worse he's rather crazy...can they avoid being arrested again?_


	3. Chapter 3: A New Villain

Saving Neopia II: Light and Darkness

_In this chapter, Bloony is going to deal with King Roo's blatantly evil advisor...or at least try to. Meanwhile, things are going to go wrong with Professor Nyctus's latest creation...and Snotty and Redtooth are going to try to steal the Day of Giving._

**Chapter 3: A New Villain**

Bloony immediately walked into King Roo's Castle. At first glance, it seemed like nothing was wrong.

"Maybe I was losing my marbles..." thought Bloony.

Sure enough, King Roo was sitting on his throne, smiling as always. It was actually a bit creepy.

"Greetings Bloony...how can I help you? Seeing though you saved all of Neopia I suppose I owe you a favor or two." stated King Roo.

"I'm fine, thanks. I just can't help but shake the feeling that something is going to go wrong." stated Bloony.

Suddenly, lightning struck King Roo's Castle.

"What makes you say that?" questioned the king.

Shortly afterwards, evil laughter was heard. Out of nowhere, King Roo's crown was sent flying off of his head.

"Where's my crown go?" questioned King Roo.

Immediately, Advisor Broo stepped out of the shadows. He was dressed in rather fancy clothes...and he was wearing King Roo's crown!

"Just as I thought..." murmured Bloony.

"Introducing the new ruler of Roo Island, King Broo!" exclaimed Advisor Broo.

"What is the meaning of this?" inquired King Roo.

"Simple. In the past all you've ever been concerned about is playing Dice-A-Roo and throwing parties. But while this kingdom is under my thumb, there's not going to be any more of that! From now on, all the Blumaroos will bow down to me!" he exclaimed.

"No Dice-A-Roo? You're insane!" bellowed King Roo.

"Stop it this instant!" demanded Bloony.

Advisor Broo responded by this by using his staff to lift Bloony up in the air.

"Uh-oh..." he stated.

"Hero Bloony, yes it is he, but not as you know him..." sang Advisor Broo. "Read my lips and come to reality."

"What the heck is he singing about?" questioned King Roo.

"I don't know. Like you said, he's gone off the deep end. He really needs a strait jacket. Like my buddy Snotty..." stated Bloony.

"Yes, meet a blast from your past, whose lies were too good to last, say hello to your precious hero Bloony!" exclaimed Advisor Broo, hurling Bloony into the ground.

"Um, hi?" greeted King Roo.

"I'm not in the mood for talking right now, sorry. I'm kind of in the middle of something" stated the yellow Blumaroo, who was rubbing his head.

"So hero Bloony turns out to be a con, need I go on? Take it from me." continued the evil advisor, teleporting Bloony into one of the towers of the castle.

"Where'd he go?" questioned King Roo.

"I can still hear you, you know! And I'm a genuine hero! Why do you keep saying that I'm a fake?" questioned Bloony.

"His personality flaws give me adequate cause to send him packing on a one-way trip until his prospects take a terminal dip!" bellowed Advisor Broo.

Suddenly, the tower Bloony was in began to shake.

"Is there an earthquake or something?" he asked.

"His assets frozen, the venue chosen is the ends of Neopia, whoopee! So long, ex-hero Bloony!" squealed Advisor Broo.

Suddenly, the tower shot like a rocket away from the rest of the castle...curiously enough, it was heading towards Terror Mountain.

"I worked hard on that tower, you know!" exclaimed King Roo.

Shortly afterward, Advisor Broo laughed like the evil maniac he was. He had already gone mad with power.

_Meanwhile on Kreludor..._

Along with all the Grundos, Cherry was witnessing the latest creation of the former mad scientist Professor Nyctus. As it turns out, he was working on a blob monster.

"Greetings my Grundo friends! Today I am going to create my latest invention! It can shapeshift into virtually anything you want! Hopefully you can have fun with it...or you can use it to help it with your chores...whatever suits you best." stated the doctor.

"Of course, there's only one of it and many of you...but don't worry about that! I also designed it so that it can divide...it can also regenerate itself so you can create as many copies of it as you wish." continued Professor Nyctus.

"Sounds fascinating!" exclaimed the Grundo.

"It certainly is! In fact, I only need one more ingredient to bring it to life! My assistant is off to fetch it from my laboratory as we speak. He should be back in two shakes of a Babaa's tail." explained the professor.

As it turns out, Steven was trying to search for the last ingredient...but he couldn't quite remember what it was.

Suddenly, he saw a vial of a mysterious black substance...he recalled seeing it somewhere before, but he couldn't decide what.

"Maybe it's what Professor Nyctus told me to get? It does look awfully similar..." thought Steven.

He decided to give it to the professor to see if it was what he was looking for...

Unfortunately, in his haste to complete the experiment, the professor decided not to check what Steven had given it to him.

"Ah, you're just in time! Now hand that vial over to me and we can get started!" exclaimed Professor Nyctus.

"Um...about that. I'm not sure-"

The doctor simply ignored Steven and simply took the vial from his hand. He then poured it over the inanimate slime he had created a few hours ago.

"Now let's sit back and watch history be made!" exclaimed the doctor.

Shortly afterwards, the slime came to life. It began to look around curiously...for a moment, it seemed that everything was fine. One of the Grundos even went over to touch the slime. Unsurprisingly, it felt moist and gooey.

This was when things began to go wrong.

Shortly after said Grundo had touched the slime, it ended up being consumed. The other Grundos screamed in horror and began to run away.

Unfortunately, the slime was rather quick. It began hopping from place to place, consuming more and more Grundos. In fact, every time it did so, it slowly began to grow bigger and bigger.

"What are you doing? Stop this! I created you!" exclaimed Professor Nyctus.

Suddenly, the slime turned towards the doctor. Was it really going to stop?

The blob monster slithered over to Professor Nyctus...

...and then ate him too.

If the remaining Grundos weren't panicking before, they certainly were now. There was nothing the monster wouldn't eat! Even its own master was simply another meal!

However, eating Professor Nyctus had a rather strange effect on the creature. Immediately, it became more intelligent...also, it grew a face. It even began to speak.

"Greetings citizens of Neopia. I am known as Deluge...and I am here for one simple purpose...to assimiliate everyone that has ever been part of the Cult of Apocalypse. Once I am finished, I shall then conquer all of Neopia and feast upon it until it is a wasteland. Everyone that tries to stop my plans shall become part of me." the monster explained.

Cherry gasped in horror. This monster was going to devour everything in Neopia! It already ate Professor Nyctus and got a substantial boost in intelligence...who knows what would happen if it ate any more Cult of Apocalypse members.

Curiously enough, the monster reminded her of Lord Cataclysm...is it possible that they were related? She noticed that a strange concoction had been poured into the slime prior to it going insane...if the dark lord himself really was part of it, then it wasn't going to give up until it had destroyed everything. Of course, it also explained why the monster spoke in a similar voice.

At this point, she realized she had to warn Bloony. It was already apparent that the more Neopets the monster absorbed, the more powerful he was going to become. Suffice to say it was going to become unstoppable if they allowed it to feast long enough.

Along with many horrified Grundos, she boarded an escape pod and prepared to escape. Still, she got the feeling that the monster wasn't going to stay on Kreludor for long...after all, there were many more places in Neopia that were filled with Neopets that he could eat. In fact, it was unlikely that it would run out.

As soon as she was off the planet, she sent Bloony another Neomail.

_Dear Bloony,_

_You've got to do something! There's a monster eating everything in sight! I believe it's related to Lord Cataclysm! And it's planning on eating the Cult of Apocalypse members! It already ate its own creator, Professor Nyctus! And it keeps getting more powerful!_

_Sincerely,_

_Cherry_

_Meanwhile on Terror Mountain..._

Bloony screamed in frustration. Now he was going to have to make his way back to Roo Island...which not only was across the sea, but was also far, far, far away from him.

"How am I supposed to save Roo Island now?" he asked.

He decided that he might as well stop at the Slushie Stop so that he could get something to drink. Unfortunately, it turned out that they were being robbed.

"Give us all your money!" exclaimed a Kyrii.

"Yeah! Hand us everything that's in that safe!" bellowed a Skeith.

"Alright, I won't resist!" exclaimed the Slushie Shop owner.

"You really shouldn't rob people, you know." stated Bloony.

The Skeith and Kyrii immediately turned around and noticed that he was standing behind them.

"Stand and deliver!" demanded the Kyrii.

"I got a better idea. Why don't you sit down and talk things over? Surely there's something you'd rather do than something this reprehensible." stated Bloony.

"You're not going to cooperate, huh? Alright then! Let's beat him up!" exclaimed the Skeith.

Unsurprisingly, the two thieves didn't last long against Bloony. After all, he had gone on an entire adventure dealing with a dark lord and his minions...so suffice to say he was a force to be reckoned with, even by himself.

"Uncle..." the two thieves stated.

"That'll teach you a lesson about trying to rob innocent people." stated the yellow Blumaroo. It always felt satisfying to give bad people what they deserved, even when personally he wished that Neopia would remain bright and cheery.

Suddenly, one of the two thieves began to tell Bloony something that caught his interest.

"You don't realize what you're getting into! Our boss is in charge of the biggest criminal enterprise in all of Neopia! The Thieves' Guild are nothing compared to him!" exclaimed the Kyrii.

"Wait, you're not working for the Thieves' Guild? Then who are you working for?" questioned the leader of the Heroes of Light.

"Well, let's just say that our boss is going to have our heads when he finds out we failed to rob a simple slushie shop..." stated the Skeith.

"Sorry to hear that." sympathized Bloony.

Shortly afterwards, the Kyrii and Skeith ran away like cowards. The Blumaroo noticed that they were running off to the abandoned Ski Lodge where the Neopets Staff had met horrible ends...but it didn't look abandoned anymore. Had someone decided that it would be a perfect hideout?

He decided that it was best not to dwell on it...and that he needed to give Cherry a hand. He decided to send her aNeomail as well.

_Dear Cherry,_

_Why can't everyone in Neopia just get along? I swear, every time Neopia seems to be in peace something always comes along and ruins it for everyone. I just had to deal with two clowns that were working for someone they claim to be more of a criminal than Kanrik...of course, Kanrik tends to be a nice guy most of the time..._

_So, let me get this straight, there's a blob monster that's growing more powerful at a rapid pace? In that case, we might want to get our group back together...but for now, I think we might be better off investigating...maybe we could find survivors or something...or maybe we could find something that will help us defeat that beast..._

_I'm in Terror Mountain...I guess I'll meet you there...besides, I need your help with a little something..._

Shortly afterwards, Bloony let out a sigh. It seemed like just yesterday when he assembled a team to take down Lord Cataclysm after he tried to make everything Neopia in evil. Of course, he didn't actually defeat Cataclysm himself...but he still had to work hard just to get to his hideout and defeat his minions.

He just hoped that his second adventure would be as successful as the first...he was worried that the Faerie of Death would not be as generous as this time.

"What am I getting into?" thought Bloony.

_Elsewhere in Terror Mountain..._

"So let me get this straight, you want to try to stop the Day of Giving from coming?" questioned Redtooth.

"Of course I do. Do you realize how annoying the Day of Giving is? Every time that happens all the Neopets throw a great big party...and it drives me crazy because I'm never invited." stated Snotty.

"That sure sounds bad." agreed Redtooth.

"They don't even share the food with me. They just gobble it right up and don't even leave a morsel. Do they even realize how hungry I get over the holidays? Right now my stomach is grumbling..." stated the green Blumaroo.

"That also sounds bad." nodded the blue Lupe.

"But the worst part is when they start singing. Every time they do that, they make my ears bleed! I'd get some earplugs or something but they never have them for my size." stated Snotty. "There's got to be a way to stop all this nonsense."

"Is your heart two sizes too small or something?" questioned Redtooth.

"Maybe...I'm not even quite sure why I do evil things anymore." stated Snotty.

Suddenly, he got an idea. A wonderful idea. A wonderful, awful idea.

"I know exactly what to do!" exclaimed the leader of the Villains of Darkness.

"Like...what?" questioned Redtooth.

"Maybe if we steal the presents...maybe no-one in Happy Valley will celebrate! You can't have the Day of Giving without presents! And besides, I bet some of them are really valuable!" squealed the demented Blumaroo.

"Won't they realize that you're stealing your presents and call the authorities? I don't want to get arrested again." questioned his partner.

Snotty sweatdropped.

"You're right...we're going to have to do something about that..." he agreed.

He then went over to the costume shop and came back wearing a Santa costume.

"You're disguising yourself as Santa?" questioned Redtooth.

"Of course I am! And you're going to disguise yourself as a Raindorf!" exclaimed Snotty.

"A Raindorf?" questioned the blue Lupe.

Shortly afterwards, Snotty stuck antlers on Redtooth's head.

"I really don't know about this." he stated.

"Which one of us runs on four legs? You or me?" questioned the green Blumaroo.

Redtooth stopped asking questions.

Shortly afterwards, they waited for nightfall...and that's when their big robbery began...

Unfortunately, the authorities would not stand by and let the Villains of Darkness get away with their crimes...

_Meanwhile at the police station at Neopia Central..._

A Red Elephante was drinking a delicious cup of coffee...in fact, he was slurping it down. It was as if it was the only thing he drank. He was wearing a badge that indicated that he was chief of the police force.

"That's the stuff..." he stated.

On his desk read the name "Officer Peanuts".

Suddenly, a yellow Lenny wearing a police uniform came into the room.

"Officer Lenny reporting for duty!" he exclaimed.

"Your parents named you after your own species?" questioned Officer Peanuts.

Officer Lenny nodded.

"OK...is there anything you wish to tell me, Lenny?" questioned the Red Elephante.

"We've found two Neopets that we're looking for!" exclaimed Lenny.

"That's a first." stated Officer Peanuts.

Officer Lenny handed out two wanted posters to signify who exactly they had located. As it turns out, it was Snotty and Redtooth, who unsurprisingly both had mugshots so that everyone could see how bad they were.

_WANTED: Snotty_

_For stealing candy from babies, jaywalking down the street, failing to report for jury duty, using a Chia for a dangerous knife-throwing game, impersonating another Blumaroo, robbing banks, breaking out of prison, assisting other criminals, and vandalism._

_REWARD: 1,000,000 Neopoints_

_WANTED: Redtooth_

_For hunting Chias, using fire hydrants for a toilet, yelling "Fire" in a theater, yelling "Ghostbusters" in a theater full of ghosts, robbing banks, hunting a Blumaroo, failing to report for jury duty, assisting other criminals, biting a Quiggle in the finger, Jubjub punting, and vandalism._

_REWARD: 500,000 Neopoints_

Upon seeing the criminal records, Officer Peanuts immediately trumpeted in rage.

"Calm down, Officer Peanuts!" demanded Officer Lenny.

"I want you to send every police officer on duty to catch these savages!" exclaimed the police chief.

"Don't you think that's going a bit overboard?" questioned the Lenny.

"Do it! Now! Or you're fired!" bellowed Officer Peanuts.

"Y-yes boss!" screeched the police officer.

After Officer Lenny left, the Red Elephante began to chuckle.

"You may have eluded the authorities for quite some time now...but soon you will be in prison...and this time you will not escape...once I catch you, I shall lock you away on an island that's surrounded by mines and man-eating Jetsams! Let's see you get away from that!" exclaimed the Red Elephante, who at this point went into hysterics.

It looked like karma had caught up to the Villains of Darkness once again...but the corrupt police chief would not be as forgiving as the Heroes of Light.

_So many things are happening in this chapter...Advisor Broo has taken over Roo Island...a monster has been created...Snotty is impersonating Santa so that he can steal presents...and the police chief has gone insane..._

_What shenanigans will the Heroes of Light and Villains of Darkness get into next? You'll find out in the next chapter...of Saving Neopia II: Light and Darkness!_

_OK, maybe I didn't need ot say the title of the story out loud...you already know what the title of the story is, right? Ah well._


	4. Chapter 4: How Snotty Stole Presents

Saving Neopia II: Light and Darkness

_In this chapter, Snotty will steal all of the Day of Giving presents...Bloony and Cherry will investigate what's left of Kreludor...and a new villain for the sequel will appear..._

**Chapter 4: How Snotty Stole Presents**

_At the slope of Terror Mountain..._

Redtooth was running down the mountain as fast as he could...Snotty in particular was encouraging him by throwing him Lupe Treats whenever he got tired.

"C'mon, we're almost there!" exclaimed Snotty.

"I'm working on it! Sheesh, Terror Mountain is a long climb...descending from the mountain isn't a cakewalk either!" bellowed Redtooth.

As it turns out, Snotty had bought a sleigh from the gift shop, and was using Redtooth so that he could get to Happy Valley.

"Can't we just use the ski lift?" questioned the blue Lupe.

"Santa never uses a ski lift! He's way too fat! He'd break it if he tried that!" exclaimed the green Blumaroo.

"OK..." replied Redtooth.

By the time Snotty and Redtooth finally arrived at Happy Valley, Redtooth was heavily exhausted and was panting for breath.

"It looks like we're finally here...now to start looting presents!" exclaimed Snotty.

Unfortunately, it turned out that he had a problem. All the doors were locked!

"Who keeps locking all these doors?" questioned the green Blumaroo.

He also tried getting in through the windows, but it turns out they were locked in too. Apparently the residents didn't want to let in the cold...or any sort of burglar for that matter.

"What to do..." thought Snotty.

Once again, he began thinking of a way he could stop the Day of Giving from coming. Just how was he going to get inside the houses? He couldn't just break down the door or the windows. That would wake the residents up. And of course that would lead him to being arrested.

He then remembered how Santa typically got into houses, and suddenly he got an idea.

"What are you doing?" questioned Redtooth.

"I'm going to try to get into this house through the chimney." stated Snotty.

"Through the chimney?" questioned the blue Lupe.

Like St. Nick himself, the green Blumaroo then climbed the roof and then hopped into the chimney. However, due to the fact that he was skinny instead of fat like Santa he ended up falling straight towards the bottom.

"Ow..." he stated. He certainly would not be trying leaping down the chimney without a care in the world again.

He then noticed the presents, and began slithering around them like he was a Hissi despite the fact that he had legs.

"You're a mean one...Mr. Snotty." sang Snotty. "You really are a heel. You're as cuddly as a cactus. You're as charming as an eel, Mr. Snotty...You're a bad banana with a greasy black peel..."

Snotty then began looting the house present by present, unlocking the doors and then handing them to Redtooth so that he could load them in his sleigh.

He then repeated the process by once again using the chimney, although this time he was careful not to fall to the bottom so quickly.

Due to the fact that he was feeling so evil, he continued to sing.

"You're a monster, Mr. Snotty. your heart's an empty hole. Your brain is full of Spyders. You've got garlic in your soul, Mr. Snotty...I wouldn't touch you with a forty-nine and a half-foot pole!"

This time, Snotty decided to help himself to whatever was in the fridge, including the delicious cookies and whatnot. After all, everyone in Happy Valley kept hogging all the food, so he decided to return the favor.

As he continued to pillage the houses, Snotty started to grow more and more excited.

"You're a vile one, Mr. Snotty. You have Mootix in your smile. You have all the tender sweetness of a seasick Krawk, Mr. Snotty. Given the choice between the two of you, I'd take the seasick Krawk!" exclaimed Snotty.

Suffice to say, he was having the time of his life. After all, he was doing what he had always wanted to do for quite some time now.

All the while, Redtooth continued loading the presents. He began to wonder if the sleigh would be big enough to support them all...and if he would collapse from exhaustion trying to get them back to their hideout.

He also heard Snotty singing, and immediately became concerned. If he kept making noise, he risked waking someone up...and of course, if they found out they were being robbed, chances are they would be busted.

Unfortunately, it seemed like he wasn't going to stop anytime soon.

"You're a foul one, Mr. Snotty. You're a nasty wanky skunk. Your heart is full of unwashed socks. Your soul is full of gunk, Mr. Snotty...the three words that best describe you are as follows and I quote: Stink! Stank! Stunk!"

It then began to occur to him that maybe he should take a bath later. His buddy Redtooth had a rather sensitive nose after all.

Once again, Snotty continued taking away all the presents and food. Ironically, this meant that he would be celebrating the Day of Giving while everyone else would be wondering what had happened.

Suffice to say it looked as if he would be having his revenge upon everyone who celebrated the Day of Giving without him. Then again, he never liked the Day of Giving to begin with. He was evil, after all.

"You're a rotter, Mr. Snotty, you're the king of sinful sots. Your heart's a dead tomato with moldy purple spots...Mr. Snotty...your soul is an apalling dung heap overflowing with the most disgraceful assortment of deplorable rubbish imaginable mangled up in tangled up knots!"

"You're stealing this song from that movie!" exclaimed Redtooth.

"Who the heck cares? I love plagarism!" bellowed Snotty.

"That explains why you decided to create an evil version of the Heroes of Light..." muttered the Lupe.

"You nauseate me, Mr. Snotty, with a nauseous super-naus, you're a crooked dirty jockey and you drive a crooked Uni...Mr. Snotty...you're a three decker sauerkraut sandwich with arsenic sauce!" he exclaimed, wondering if there was a Neopet out there that would actually eat that.

Eventually, he decided to steal one of the Christmas trees and shove it up the chimney to complete his horrible scheme...however, someone noticed him doing so.

In this case, it was a Baby Usul. It was then that Snotty realized that singing a song about how horrible he was while everyone was trying to sleep wasn't such a good idea.

"Santa Claus, why are you stealing our tree?" questioned the Baby Usul.

"Why are you up in the middle of the night? Go back to bed!" exclaimed Snotty.

The Baby Usul shrugged and decided to go to sleep.

Our evil green Blumaroo then let out a sigh of relief...at this point, he decided to call it quits. He had stolen virtually everything the citizens of Happy Valley had and it was time to head back to his hideout.

However, he discovered that they had too much to carry.

"What are we going to do?" questioned Redtooth.

"I guess we're going to have to dump some of it off a cliff..." stated Snotty.

And so the green Blumaroo and blue Lupe prepared to drop some of the presents off a cliff and into the depths below...where unsurprisingly it would be lost forever.

As they did so, Snotty realized that the sun was coming up and decided to listen to see if he could hear anyone in Happy Valley crying.

Instead, they decided to sing a certain song named after their favorite day of the week.

"It's Friday, Friday...getting down on Friday..." sang the villagers.

Snotty gasped in horror. Never in his entire life had he heard such horrible music! He looked around him and discovered that Redtooth also could not tolerate the terrible song.

"What are we going to do?" questioned Snotty. "I don't think any of these presents have ear plugs!"

"There's only one thing we can do! We have to give the presents we stole back to where they belong!" bellowed Redtooth.

And so the Villains of Darkness reluctantly decided to take the presents back to the residents of Happy Valley.

"We surrender! You can have your presents back! Stealing the Day of Giving isn't worth it anymore!" exclaimed Snotty.

"Yes! We don't want to ruin any more holidays! Please forgive us!" continued Redtooth.

"He made off with our presents?" questioned one of the villagers.

Suffice to say, Snotty realized that day what the Day of Giving was really about...and that if he tried stealing presents again, he would have to listen to more horrible music.

In fact, his heart grew three times that day...to the point that it was miraculous that it kept beating.

"Maybe you're right, Redtooth...maybe we should quit being evil...I mean, the Day of Giving is just a holiday." stated Snotty.

To further support Redtooth's advice, the green Blumaroo later got an invitation to a Christmas party...apparently they thought his Santa costume was awesome.

Suffice to say, the Villains of Darkness were no longer quite so dark after the day.

Unfortunately, they would end up dealing with more than a team of heroes they simply couldn't leave alone in the near future.

_Meanwhile at the Terror Mountain Ski Lodge..._

A Skunk Bruce wearing a bowtie and a white suit was eating spaghetti and caviar...he was in fact very satisfied that his criminal organization was going well. Just recently his goons had stolen two million Neopoints, so at the moment he was twice a millionaire. Although his real name was Willis, his henchmen usually referred him as "Master" or "Boss".

Due to the fact that nobody ever wanted to come near the Ski Lodge, the police had no idea where his hideout was, so it looked like he was safe from being arrested.

However, although most of his crimes were successful, there were always a few that didn't turn out so well.

At that very moment, the two criminals that had tried robbing the slushie shop and ended up being foiled by Bloony were marching into his office.

"Yes, what is it? Your names are Hurt and Stabby, I believe?" inquired Willis.

"We're sorry, Boss! We couldn't pull it off!" they exclaimed.

Willis wasn't too happy about their failure, so he decided to call a friend of his...specifically, his butler.

Immediately, he rang a bell...suffice to say the two thieves realized what he had in store for them and their skin paled.

Shortly afterwards, a muscular Orange Kougra wearing a tuxedo came into the room.

"Yes, master?" he questioned.

"Ah, Siberis. I want you to show these two fools why failing me is a bad idea." stated Willis.

Siberis nodded, and he immediately cracked his knuckles.

Shortly afterwards, there were much violence...to make a long story short, Hurt and Stabby were thrown out of the Ski Lodge and would need to pay a visit to the Neohospital.

He decided to read the newspaper to see if anyone had found out about the failed robbery...sure enough, it said that the heist had been foiled by a yellow Blumaroo.

"A yellow Blumaroo? Wait a minute! I've heard of him! He's the one that saved all of Neopia from that despicable dark lord...and now he's interfering with my business!" he realized.

He thought for a while about what to do. For a moment, he considered leaving the talking Uni head he had bought from a fortuneteller where Bloony slept for the night to scare him out of his mind...but he figured that since he was a hero he wouldn't be frightened easily.

"I don't have a body!" exclaimed the talking Uni head.

"You already told me that a million times..." muttered Willis, who started to wonder why he even kept it in his chambers.

He decided that perhaps he should send some of his thugs after him...perhaps if they were lucky the yellow Blumaroo would give up on heroics altogether. It was only a matter of time before he retired.

"So, he thinks that he can mess with the biggest criminal mastermind in all of Neopia, does he? Well, I'll give him an offer he can't refuse..." he stated, laughing evilly.

_Meanwhile on Kreludor..._

"So, this is where the blob monster came to life and started eating everyone, am I right?" questioned Bloony.

"Yes, Bloony. It was absolutely horrific! He just wouldn't stop eating!" agreed Cherry.

"So, he has a bigger appetite than the Esophagor?" questioned the yellow Blumaroo.

"Possibly..." stated the red Chia.

Curious, he decided to look around...but he noticed that there seemed to be nothing there but a bunch of slime puddles.

"Well, Cherry, it looks like Kreludor has already been evacuated...or everyone else has already been eaten." Bloony stated.

Cherry began to cry. She was too late!

"It's OK...we'll bring whatever did this to justice...I promise..." assured the leader of Heroes of Light.

Suddenly, one of the slime puddles began to make bubbles.

"Hmm?" questioned Bloony.

Out of nowhere, several slimes came out of the puddle...although they had adorable-looking faces...he got the feeling that they weren't friendly.

"Incoming!" exclaimed Cherry.

Thankfully, the slime monsters were weak, and our hero and heroine were able to dispatch them without a problem. Unfortunately, there were more of these monsters scattered all over Kreludor.

Also, apparently anything that came in contact with the slime that wasn't digested ended up being corrupted...similar to Lord Cataclysm's dark chemical that brainwashed anything it touched...although unlike said chemical it could also bring inanimate objects to life...as Bloony and Cherry discovered when they fought a rock golem.

"Graarghhh!" the golem screamed.

"What is up with this goop?" questioned Bloony.

"I don't know! It keeps getting more and more unusual!" stated Cherry.

"You better not eat it then, Cherry." warned the yellow Blumaroo.

The rock golem started throwing stones at our heroes...but since they had gone through so much in their first adventure they were able to throw them back.

Thankfully, the golem was not as strong as it looked, and it eventually crumbled after Bloony and Cherry hit it a few times.

"Sometimes tells me this isn't the only monster that this horrible goo is going to create..." thought Bloony.

Deciding to continue exploring the planet despite the danger, our hero and heroine discovered that not all of the Grundos had left the planet and that some of them were simply hiding...interestingly enough, this included Steven, who had been terrified by the results of Professor Nyctus's experiment.

"What happened here?" asked the Blumaroo.

"It was horrible! Professor Nyctus and I tried to create an experiment that would assist the Grundos but it went so wrong...worst of all, I think I created it using part of Lord Cataclysm..." stated Steven.

"Lord Cataclysm? Didn't he almost ruin Neopia for everyone?" questioned Cherry.

"Exactly...if that blob monster is anything like him...it's not going to stop until it's consumed everything in Neopia..." stated Steven.

"I see...we'll need to leave Kreludor and stop it then..." stated Bloony.

Steven then allowed Bloony and Cherry to use his escape pod...immediately, they wondered where the monster would head next.

"If I were that monster...I would target an entire city next...wait a minute...I know where to go!" exclaimed Bloony.

And so the two of them headed towards Neopia Central...but one question remained in their minds...

Would they be able to stop the monster in time?

_It seems that the Villains of Darkness are giving up on their evil ways...hopefully in the near future they'll start doing good things instead of kicking Puppyblews like they usually do..._

_Unfortunately for the Heroes of Light, it seems that they've attracted the attention of an evil Bruce that's obsessed with money and power...can they shut him down before he comes up with any more terrible schemes?_

_And most importantly, can they stop the blob monster from eating any more Neopets? Already it's starting to change Neopia for the worse...its goop is corrupting everything around it and is even bringing the inanimate to life!_

_As usual, I hope you're looking forward to the next chapter!_


	5. Chapter 5: Return to Neopia Central

Saving Neopia II: Light and Darkness

_In this chapter, The Heroes of Light will investigate Neopia Central to see if the monster is indeed attacking the city...meanwhile, the Villains of Darkness will visit a museum to do some sightseeing instead of looting one for a change...but things will go crazy..._

_Oh yes...and they're going to have a run in with Willis's goons and Officer Peanuts' police force..._

**Chapter 5: Return to Neopia Central**

Bloony and Cherry were touring Neopia Central, trying to see if they could find any sign of Neopets or the blob monster.

"I have to admit...we spent quite some time here at our last adventure..." stated Bloony.

"We certainly did...I hope that the monster hasn't arrived yet..." thought Cherry.

Thankfully, it seemed that they had arrived in time. In fact, it looked like the monster wasn't even attacking Neopia Central at the moment. The Neopets were happily conversing with each other and otherwise having a good time.

"Maybe I was wrong...maybe Deluge is still on Kreludor...or maybe he's simply gone somewhere else." thought the Blumaroo.

Curious, he decided to pick up a copy of the Neopian Times...immediately he started to get a bit worried. Apparently, strange puddles of slime had started to appear throughout Neopia.

"So he is somewhere around Neopia..." thought Bloony.

He also read in the newspaper that the Grundos inhabiting Kreludor had mysteriously gone missing...although some of them had been discovered recently away from their home. They had mentioned a horrible blob monster that had consumed their friends and family.

Of course, he had already heard about this story from Cherry.

"I'm just glad that we actually beat that horrible creature to the punch...but where exactly is it now? The more slime puddles that creature creates...the more monsters that are going to start invading Neopia..." stated Bloony.

"Ah yes...and the bigger the monster becomes...the bigger the puddles it's going to create." pointed out Cherry.

"You're right Cherry. We need to stop the monster and fast!" agreed the Blumaroo.

Suddenly, they began to hear rustling. Was the slime monster about to ambush them?

Thankfully, it quickly turned out that it wasn't Deluge...it was simply a gang of thieves that had tracked down the Heroes of Light.

"Oh brother..." stated Bloony.

Curiously enough, they resembled the two thieves that he had stopped from robbing the slushie shop earlier...could it be that they were working for the same guy?

"Give us all of your Neopoints! Otherwise we're going to take away everything you have until you're in your boxers!" demanded one of the thieves.

"You can't do that to me! I'm a girl! The Neopets staff will have your heads for that! They're trying to keep the game family-friendly here!" exclaimed Cherry.

"We can live with that." answered another one of the thieves.

Cherry simply sighed.

"In our boxers? That certainly sounds embarrasing...but to be honest I've gone through a lot worse...I'll have you know that I've held my own against a dark lord. Feel free to do your worst." stated Bloony.

"Very well." answered the leader of the thieves.

Unfortunately for the scoundrels, they weren't very smart. In fact, although there were about thirty of them and only two of their enemies, they felt the need to attack our heroes individually rather than attacking together as a team like Bloony and Cherry usually did.

Bloony effortlessly punched the thieves away from him, while Cherry jumped into the air and knocked them over like dominoes.

"Is that all you got?" taunted Bloony.

"This is a cakewalk!" exclaimed Cherry. "Speaking of which I could use some Neopets Birthday Cake right now...Neopets has been running for over ten years!"

Suddenly, one of the walls of an under construction building fell on top of the remaining thieves...they were squished like pancakes and were immediately reduced to zero hit points.

"Whoever's the ringleader of these goons is going to need to do better than that if he wants to take us down." stated Bloony.

"Still, I wonder how they managed to find us?" wondered Cherry.

"Come to think of it, that is rather odd...hmm, I've got a bad feeling about this. Something tells me that this criminal organization may go deeper than just Terror Mountain..." agreed the leader of the Heroes of Light.

"Does this mean we have nowhere to hide?" questioned the red Chia, who was starting to feel worried herself.

"I certainly hope not. I really don't look forward to having to deal with these thugs all the time." stated the yellow Blumaroo.

"And why haven't the police haven't shown up yet? They usually show up after we've defeated the Villains of Darkness...speaking of which I wonder what they're up to?" questioned Cherry.

Curious, Bloony decided to check the newspaper he had read earlier. As it turns out, the Villains of Darkness had struck again.

"I should have known..." he thought.

This time, they had impersonated Santa and a Raindorf...climbing down chimneys and then making off with their presents. They also stole a lot of their food, and had even stolen a Christmas tree.

"Wait, don't they mean a Day of Giving tree? Sometimes the world of Neopia confuses me..." stated Bloony.

However, they had a change of heart and decided to return everything they had stolen. Also, Redtooth had saved a bunch of Petpets from a ferocious Florg that wanted to eat him along with the innocent creatures for dinner.

"Wait, what? They've got to be kidding me...are the Villains of Darkness really deciding to change their ways?" thought Bloony.

Rather surprised by this shocking news, he decided to tell Cherry about what was going on.

"I'm just glad that maybe we can finally bury the hatchet...I'm getting really tired of all their crazy ambushes and their horrible crimes." stated the red Chia.

"To be honest, I was getting really tired of them too. They never seemed to give up, did they. I just hope that now they'll do something good instead of being evil. I wonder why Snotty decided to start doing bad things anyway. Surely you can't go crazy without a cause..." agreed the yellow Blumaroo.

He also read in the newspaper about a massive criminal organization that was spreading all over Neopia, and that lately the police force had become rather corrupt and were taking bribes from the said organization. Their police chief was also going ballistic in bringing criminals to justice.

"I guess that's why the police aren't doing anything to stop these goons...maybe I should have a talk with them. Still, I wonder who exactly is in charge of all these criminals. Surely someone has to be leading them. The question is who exactly." thought Bloony.

Nonetheless, he decided that he had more important matters to deal with than simply reading a newspaper. He could deal with the corrupt police force and with the greedy criminals after he had dealt with the blob monster that was eating everything and everyone and was creating crazy monsters.

"I guess we better start looking." stated Bloony, who began searching Neopia Central along with Cherry.

_Meanwhile at the local museum..._

"Why are we here again?" stated Redtooth.

"I figured that since we can't steal anything valuable anymore without getting busted we can at least look at something precious. That always makes me feel better." explained Snotty.

As it turns out, there were several priceless looking artifacts in the museum...personally, the green Blumaroo wished that he could steal them and sell them for quick cash...but he realized that they were likely guarded by heavy security and he would once again be arrested if he tried that.

Suddenly, he noticed that there was a valuable looking compass on display...apparently, it pointed towards six elemental crystals that were scattered throughout Neopia...and that if they were all gathered they could summon a powerful Draik that could grant wishes...personally, it reminded him of a TV show he used to watch. It was arguably just a myth, but Snotty was once again tempted to steal.

"Oh, how I want this so bad...thank about all the things I can get if I can find all those crystals..." murmured the green Blumaroo.

"Um, Snotty, those crystals probably don't even exist. And we're not supposed to steal anymore, remember? Every time we do that karma strikes and we end up in jail or experience some other sort of horrible karma." stated Redtooth.

Snotty sighed.

"You're right, Redtooth...we really should stop doing evil things...maybe that way we won't get beat up by the Heroes of Light again...although personally I would like to return the favor." he reluctantly agreed.

Near the entrance of the museum, it was almost time for it to close. A security guard was looking around the museum to see if there was anyone still there. After all, he wouldn't want to lock anyone inside by mistake.

Suddenly, he heard the door creaking. Apparently, someone was entering the museum. Curious, he decided to head back to the entrance.

"Er, sorry. We're about to close. You'll have to come in some other t-"

The security guard was then interrupted when suddenly he was blasted by a fireball, followed by being stabbed by an icicle. He immediately fell to the ground, unconscious.

As it turns out, there were two Neopets entering the museum and not just one. One was of them was an orange Scorchio wearing battle armour and wielding a sword. The other was a cyan Acara wearing a majestic-looking robe and wielding a staff.

Immediately, they walked over to the compass...apparently, this was what they were looking for.

"Well, this is ironic...we've spent ages searching for this compass...and yet, it ends up in a simple history museum." stated the orange Scorchio.

"Yes...but what matters is that we've finally found it...now we can use this to finally find the crystals and save our hometown..." agreed the cyan Acara.

"Can we help you guys?" asked Snotty.

The Scorchio and Acara looked surprised. Apparently they didn't expect anyone else to be in the museum at the time of night.

Of course, this was justified, as the Villains of Darkness had spent quite some time staring at all the valuable treasures. Apparently time flied whenever they did that.

"Who the heck are you guys?" inquired Redtooth.

The Scorchio and Acara simply shrugged and decided to introduce ourselves.

"My name is Cyrus. You see, we're from a land that consists primarily of magic. In fact, all of its residents have access to a particular field of it. I personally have access to fire magic...although personally I'm more of a knight than a wizard...unlike my partner here." explained Cyrus.

"So, your home is kind of like Faerieland?" questioned Snotty.

The Acara nodded. "And my name is Luna. Similar to my partner here, I'm a sorceress that has access to ice magic...in fact, everyone in my home considers me to be the most powerful wizard there. Unfortunately, the residents decided to take magic for granted...and as a result, our land is dying..."

"That's sad." stated Redtooth.

"Because of this, we have been sent on a mission to locate the compass and use the six crystals to make a wish...in this case, it is to restore our home to its former glory." continued Luna.

"Sounds like a plan." stated the green Blumaroo.

"Now if you want to give us a hand...simply give us the compass and we'll be on our way. No questions asked." stated Cyrus.

"Funny, part of me wants to make a wish using those crystals myself..." murmured Snotty.

"Do you want to help us or not?" questioned Luna in an angry tone of voice.

"Fine fine fine. Take it easy." stated Redtooth.

Deciding to try to be nice for a change, Snotty decided to pick up the compass and hand it over to Cyrus and Luna.

"Thank you for your cooperation." stated Cyrus.

Suddenly, an alarm began to sound. Apparently, they had triggered an alert.

Immediately, all four of them started to become worried.

Deciding to make a hasty giveaway, Luna teleported herself out of the museum along with Cyrus.

Unfortunately, in the process, they left Snotty and Redtooth behind.

"Well this is just perfect! We try to do something good for a change and now everyone is going to think we're criminals!" exclaimed the green Blumaroo.

"Aren't we already technically criminals?" pointed out the blue Lupe.

"Yes...but this time we're going to be arrested for something we didn't do! Curse you, Cyrus and Luna!" bellowed Snotty.

At that moment, several police cars arrived. They immediately heard the sound of Battledome weapons being loaded.

"Come on out with your hands up!" demanded the police force.

Snotty and Redtooth shrugged and decided to do what they demanded. What more could they do? Hopefully they would at least receive a trial so that they could try to defend themselves...but since they had a prior record they were probably going to lose the case.

But as it turned out, the police were trigger-happy...and they decided to shoot Snotty and Redtooth with their lightning guns even though they reached for the sky.

"What's the big idea?!" screamed Snotty.

Angered at this police brutality, the two Neopets decided to start resisting arrest. They started smashing the police cars, scaring the police officers away, and beating up the ones that decided to stand their ground.

Thankfully, the police offered minimal resistance, and before long they all retreated. Shortly afterwards, the sun rose into the sky.

"I guess that means everything will be peaceful and cheery now!" exclaimed Redtooth.

Suddenly, they heard the sound of an Elephante trumpeting. They looked around, and discovered that the police chief was standing just a few feet away from them. Apparently he wasn't too happy that they had taken down his squad.

"Uh-oh..." stated the green Blumaroo.

"So, you think you can get away with stealing a priceless artifact, don't you? I should have known that you'd tried to rob this place! Well guess what! Today you're going to be sent to a maximum security prison on a faraway island! And the water's going to be surrounded with mines, so you won't even be able to go for a swim! And to top it all off, you'll be there for the rest of your lives!" bellowed Officer Peanuts.

"That's not fair...we didn't do this! At least give us a trial!" demanded Redtooth.

"No! I'm not giving you a trial! A trial is too good for you! And everyone knows you did this! You'll be going there whether you like it or not! Have fun!" exclaimed the police chief.

Realizing how crazy the Elephante was, Snotty and Redtooth decided that their best course of action was to flee like cowards, which interestingly enough they were good at doing.

"Run!" screamed Snotty.

The two of them then started running away as fast as they could.

"Oh no you don't! You won't be getting away from me this time! Just wait until I get my hands on you!" bellowed Officer Peanuts, who began to charge after them, leaving a path of destruction in his wake.

_Elsewhere in Neopia Central..._

Marvin the Mynci had been having a good time lately. He had recently been hanging out with his crush Ursula, who interestingly enough really enjoyed his company.

He had also been building several different machines, which he had been giving to the public to assist them in their many tasks. Not all of them had been successful, and in fact some of them had gone berserk, but thankfully he had been able to learn from his mistakes.

Overall, everyone in Neopia Central was looking forward to his next invention, particularly Ursula, who had even asked if she could help in his next creation. At the moment though, she was busy exercising. After all, just because she was a girl didn't mean that she had to be stereotypically feminine, although exercising so much meant that she never had to worry about being overweight.

Suddenly, he noticed that the latest copy of the Neopian Times had arrived...so he decided to give it a read. After all, it was important to take a break from building more machines after all.

It then became apparent that perhaps Bloony and Cherry needed his help again. According to the paper, they had run-ins with slime monsters, a rock golem, and even a gang of bandits. They were also trying to hunt down some kind of strange gelatin beast...

Deciding to take as many of his inventions he could carry, he set out to once again give the Heroes of Light a helping hand. After all, he always had something they could use to topple their opponents.

And so he set off to look for them. Hopefully they would be nearby...

"I'm not going to let you down, Bloony! Just wait until you get a load of my newest inventions!" he squealed.

_In Tyrannia..._

Ironically enough, it turned out that Rocky was doing the same thing as his good counterpart Marvin was doing. In this case however, he was reading a copy of the Neopian Times that was made entirely of stone. It was rather surprising that the newspaper went all the way back to the Stone Age, but due to his limited mental capacity he decided not to question it.

Unlike Marvin, he decided to see if there were anything about the Villains of Darkness in the newspaper. He in fact wasn't terribly concerned about the Heroes of Light, as Snotty had told them that they were a bunch of losers that sucked their thumbs and lived with their mothers.

Much to his surprise, he discovered that the Villains of Darkness had been doing good things lately...such as returning the presents they had stolen or saving Petpets from Florg the Mutant Chia.

Ironically, he had done something good himself about a year ago...he immediately began to flashback to that particular day.

_In his cave, an evil Grarrl was gluttonously eating the food that the citizens of Mystery Island was giving him...he licked his lips and let out an enormous burp._

_As it turns out, he had abducted the local Aisha jungle princess...and had demanded that the residents give him all of their food or he would toss her into a volcano._

_In truth however, he wasn't actually planning on doing so...mainly due to the fact that everyone in Mystery Island including him thought the jungle princess was ridiculously beautiful...of course it also helped that all she ever wore was a fur bikini..._

_"Let me go!" demanded the jungle princess, who was locked in a cage._

_"Never! They're about to give me gourmet food! If I keep this up I'll have a trophy in no time!" demanded the Grarrl._

_Suddenly, he heard the sound of someone screaming._

_"Huh? Is someone there?" questioned the prehistoric Neopet._

_Shortly afterwards, Rocky crashed through the cave ceiling, causing light to shine through the cave in the process._

_"Where is Rocky?" questioned the caveman Mynci._

_The evil Grarrl was not amused._

_"You dare bring light to my lair? You must die!" he bellowed._

_Immediately, the Grarrl approached Rocky and started trying to take bites out of him. He immediately panicked and started trying to whack the dinosaur with a club..._

_However, as it turned out, the beast was all bark and no bite, and before long he passed out on the ground._

_"You did it! Now can you get me out of this cage?" inquired the Aisha princess._

_Rocky shrugged and whacked her cage with a club. Curiously enough, this caused it to slide right open._

_"My hero!" squealed the princess, who immediately kissed the caveman Mynci on the cheek._

_Immediately, Rocky's cheeks turned bright red. Never in his life had he felt more warm and fuzzy._

Rocky was glad that he had found a Neopet that didn't think he was ugly and in fact loved him with all her soul...although personally he was started to get a bit annoyed that she followed him wherever he went, and wished that she would take things a bit slower.

She had introduced herself as Jade...and that her father would be grateful that she had been rescued.

Sure enough, he had thrown a party in his honor...and said that he would even allow Rocky to marry her. Personally, he wasn't ready for that kind of commitment yet, although personally he thought that Jade was the most beautiful Neopet in the world.

He still enjoyed her company though. Nonetheless, he noticed that as of late the Villains of Darkness had run in trouble with the law, and decided that maybe he should give them a hand. He didn't want them to be arrested like they had so many times before...it was only a matter of time before they encountered a prison that they couldn't escape.

However, his love interest noticed where he was going.

"Where are you going?" Jade asked.

"Rocky's going to help his friends..." stated Rocky.

"Don't worry! I'll always be there for you!" she exclaimed.

The caveman Mynci simply shrugged and decided to board a taxi towards Neopia Central. Curiously enough, the driver drove the taxi by running his feet together.

"Rocky's coming for you guys!" he exclaimed.

_Meanwhile in the outskirts of Neopia..._

Due to the fact that he was created from Lord Cataclysm's remains, and because he had absorbed Professor Nyctus...Deluge quickly realized that the Heroes of Light would try to stop him from absorbing new people.

Because he was still weak and had not yet eaten many Neopets, he figured that it was probably a good idea to stay away from Bloony and Cherry for the time being and not to attack an enormous group of people at once. After all, if he tried attacking a crowded city, they would likely take notice.

So he decided to take it small. In fact, he decided to take it about as small as the puddles he was currently making.

And speaking of them, one of the slime puddles he created suddenly began to bubble.

Deluge reacted with curiousity.

Out of nowhere, several slimes sprouted from the puddle.

"Ready to serve!" exclaimed one of the slimes.

Deluge immediately became curious, but he decided not to look a gift Uni in the mouth.

Immediately, he ordered the slimes to search for any potential victims, and to warn him if they saw a yellow Blumaroo and a red Chia.

Sure enough, one of the slimes discovered that several Neopets were roasting marshmallows on a campfire. Deluge immediately smiled. He had found exactly what he was looking for.

"Very good." he stated.

"Do you hear something?" inquired one of the campers, a blue Kacheek.

"It's probably nothing." answered another camper, a green Ruki.

Suddenly, the slime monster leapt on top of the Neopets. Before they realized what was going on, they had been completely consumed.

Deluge then laughed as he grew several inches...however, in the process, he also noticed that he had absorbed the fire the campers were using...immediately, he started to feel hot.

Shortly afterwards, his normally green goo turned orange. Apparently, he could also absorb substances such as water or poison and not just people.

Curious, he decided to see if he could now breathe fire. As it turns out, he was in fact quite capable of doing so, as he noticed when he reduced the grass in front of him to ash.

He then spat out a ball of slime...sure enough, several fiery slimes sprouted out of it.

"You rang?" they asked.

He then smiled, realizing that Professor Nyctus in his haste to complete his project gave him powerful tools to absorb his victims...

Suddenly, one of the slimes warned him that Bloony and Cherry were approaching, so he decided to wander off elsewhere to see if he could find anything else to eat.

_Deluge is growing more powerful...can Bloony and Cherry find him before he hurts anyone else? And will Willis send even more criminals after them? And can the Villains of Darkness outrun Officer Peanuts? Tune in next time for the next chapter of Saving Neopia II: Light and Darkness..._

_Gosh, it feels like I'm hosting a TV show..._


	6. Chapter 6: Taking Back Roo Island

Saving Neopia II: Light and Darkness

_In this chapter...our heroes will remember something important, and will head to Roo Island...of course, this will give Deluge more time to eat more Neopets...but we can blame Advisor Broo for that. Lousy meddling villains..._

_And of course, Snotty and Redtooth are running for their freedom. But can they escape Officer Peanuts? As we know, he's gone off the deep end and now he's obsessed with sending them to a maximum security prison where they won't be able to escape._

_But Officer Peanuts is not the only villain that's plaguing Neopia in the moment, oh no...we'll also get to see what Willis, Cyrus, and Luna are up too...just what could they possibly be planning?_

**Chapter 6: Taking Back Roo Island**

"Uh-oh! I just remembered something!" exclaimed Bloony.

"What is it?" questioned Cherry.

"Roo Island's been taken over by an evil chancellor...he's probably already twisted it as we speak...I kind of lost track considering what's going on right now..." stated the yellow Blumaroo.

"But won't that give the monster more time to eat more Neopets?" questioned the red Chia.

"I guess we'll have to do it quickly." stated Bloony.

And so our heroes decided to take a boat towards Roo Island. Pulling out their Neopoints as soon as they could...and curiously enough checking to see if they had been short-changed...they set off to Roo Island.

However, they quickly noticed that things had been changed dramatically. Instead of the welcome sign saying "Welcome to Roo Island", it instead said "This is Broo Island. No trespassing."

It seemed that Advisor Broo had cast some sort of darkness spell, because Roo Island was now very dark instead of bright and cheery like it usually was.

The water that surrounded Roo Island was now apparently heavily polluted, as it was now dark green, suggesting that Advisor Broo wasn't much of an enviromentalist.

Sadly, the Merry-Go-Round had also been changed. The formerly red flags had been replaced by ugly purple ones, with the one in the center now having a skull on it instead of a heart.

The trees and bushes in front of the merry-go-round were now leafless, and the grass had shriveled up.

The top of the merry-go-round was now purple as well, with Advisor Broo's head on it instead of King Roo's.

The Unis were now scary-looking instead of sugary, with one of them being a ghost, another being Darigan, the third being a mutant, the fourth being a pirate, and the fifth resembling the Nightsteed.

The spring shop was now known as the doom shop, which selled dangerous toys that Cherry certainly would not give to her baby brother.

The souvenir shop had also been changed...in this case, it was selling Advisor Broo-related merchandise, such as chairs and plushies and the like.

Suffice to say Roo Island had dramatically taken a turn for the worse, but arguably the most changed was the castle. It now had Advisor Broo's ears on it instead of the ears of its former owner King Roo, and it was now colored light purple, with the towers being colored a much deeper shade. The golden crown indicating the throne room was now silver, and the flag on top of the castle was purple as well.

The only thing that hadn't been changed was the tower where Count Von Roo played games of Deadly Dice. In fact, it seemed like he hadn't noticed that anything was wrong at all. If anything, he seemed to be sleeping more peacefully than ever.

Surprisingly, the Blumaroos were wandering around aimlessly rather than look around in shock and horror at what Advisor Broo had done to the island. Naturally, our heroes were quick to notice this.

"I wonder why none of the Blumaroos aren't doing anything about this. Advisor Broo's choice of decor is horrible." thought Bloony.

Suddenly, one of the Blumaroos walked up to him...curiously enough, it was his neighbor, Bluigi.

"Ah Bluigi. Can you tell me what exactly is going on? I know that Advisor Broo has taken over but-"

Bloony was then interrupted when Bluigi started trying to whack him with his Ridiculously Heavy Battle Hammer.

"Hey, what's the big idea!" bellowed the yellow Blumaroo. Had his friend and neighbor gone bonkers?

Looking into his eyes, he discovered that apparently the Blumaroos had been brainwashed by Advisor Broo into doing his bidding...and that they were attacking anyone that had decided to pay Roo Island a visit.

"Not this evil possession again! This is the third time this has happened to Neopia! Can't they give it a rest?" Bloony explained his frustrations.

Thankfully, the evil possession was much easier to get rid of this time. As it turns out, all one needed to do was attack said Blumaroo to bring them back to their senses, as Cherry discovered when she tried to fight back. Apparently this was an oversight of Advisor Broo.

Shortly after Cherry struck him, Bluigi rubbed his head.

"Ugh...my head...what happened? Wait, why is everything dark and twisted? Did everyone decide to stop playing Dice-A-Roo?" the blue Blumaroo questioned.

Suddenly, Bloony noticed that there were several papers spread throughout the island. He decided to read one of the papers to Cherry. As it turns out, these were royal decrees, and all of the laws Advisor Broo had added were ruining Roo Island for everyone. Well, except for himself and arguably Count Von Roo.

"Why am I not surprised..." thought Bloony.

_No Blumaroo shall be allowed to use whoopee cushions. Any whoopee cushions discovered shall be confiscated by the authorities._

_From now on, the only music they can listen to are Kadoaties yowling._

_Hopping is no longer allowed. Any Blumaroo caught hopping shall get a hopping ticket that will cost one million Neopoints._

_Any Blumaroo that blows raspberries shall have their tongues burned with boiling hot coals._

_King Roo is currently my slave. Do not ask any questions on the matter. And don't call him king, call him Slave Roo._

_I am no longer King Roo's advisor. From now on, I am king. And I do not need advice myself thank you, I rule my kingdom perfectly._

_From now on, Blumaroos shall no longer be allowed to eat nachoes. They shall instead be served healthy amounts of asparagus._

"Asparagus? Yuck!" commented Cherry.

_If any Blumaroo throws a pie in my face, I shall see it that you are force-fed pies until you are fatter than King Kelpbeard._

_From now on, there will be no more parties. Not even birthday parties._

_If I see a balloon, I shall pop it with my trusty needle. _

_If I see a cake, I will blow out the candles and wish the birthday boy or girl an unhappy birthday. _

_If I see presents, I will open them and take them for myself._

_The merry-go-round will now be the Dreary-Go-Round...where Blumaroos will spin around until they are sick to their stomachs._

Although Bloony wasn't nearly as happy-go-lucky as a typical Blumaroo, he was not pleased at all that the normally peaceful anarchist Roo Island was now a miserable dictatorship ruled by a mad Blumaroo.

But there was one decree that made him snap and swear vengeance on Advisor Broo.

_From now on, there will be no more Dice-A-Roo. Any Blumaroo caught playing any sort of dice game shall have their dice chucked into my castle moat._

"How dare he! King Roo loves playing Dice-A-Roo! This is a complete and utter disgrace! That does it! Cherry, we're going to dethrone this pathetic excuse of a Blumaroo." demanded Bloony.

"I'll have to agree with you with that one. I love nachoes too, you know. Especially when they're covered with cheese!" Cherry stated.

"Well actually, I just like nachoes as a snack. I don't eat them all the time. But you're right, I don't think any Blumaroo would look forward to eating asparagus...unless they were somehow related to Number Six." pointed out Bloony.

And so Bloony and Cherry started storming towards Advisor Broo's Castle...unbrainwashing any Blumaroo that tried to stop them from getting there in the process.

Soon enough, they saw that the two guards King Roo had hired to defend his castle were standing in front of the entrance to the castle...but they had been brainwashed too.

"Advisor Broo isn't accepting an audience now. Please be on your way. And by all means, feel free to say 'All Hail Advisor Broo'." stated the guards.

Cherry tried to snap them out of their senses like she did with the hypnotized citizens of Roo Island, but curiously enough it didn't work. In fact, this only made them angry.

"How dare you hit me! A blow to Advisor Broo's guards is like hitting Advisor Broo himself! That does it! We're going to boot you off the island! You'll never be allowed to return again!" they bellowed.

"It seems Advisor Broo has cast a more advanced spell on these two." pointed out Bloony. Suffice to say it looked like they were going to have to fight their way inside.

As such, Cherry and Bloony had a harder time dealing with these two guards than they did with the criminals, slimes, and brainwashed Blumaroos they had been fighting lately.

"Ouch!" exclaimed Cherry as one of the guards poked her with a spear.

Bloony punched one of the armored Blumaroos in the face, causing him to growl and started trying to charge at him.

As for the other guard, he got the same idea and started to charge at Cherry as well.

However, they jumped out of the way and the two guards ended up crashing into each other.

This still wasn't enough for them to snap out of their mesmerization, and they decided to chuck the spears at Bloony and Cherry.

Cherry immediately ducked, but Bloony wasn't so lucky.

"Ow!" he stated. Thankfully, King Roo had not given the guards sharp spears due to the fact that he didn't want any Neopet to get hurt, but they nonetheless stung.

Eventually, the two guards decided to launch an all-out assault on Bloony and Cherry, trying to jab them with their spears as many times as they could.

This ultimately proved futile, as Bloony tossed Cherry at them and caused them to lose their balance.

Shortly afterwards, they both fell into the castle moat, landing and making an enormous splash.

"I sure hope they're OK..." murmured Bloony.

Suddenly, they discovered that they were climbing out of the castle moat. Apparently King Roo had also given the castle moat a few ladders in case any Blumaroo fell in by accident.

Bloony and Cherry stood their ground.

However, as it turns out, the two guards were no longer brainwashed.

"Whoa...did we sleepwalk or something? We're soaking wet!" exclaimed one of the guards.

"Yeah. The last thing I remembered was Advisor Broo telling us to betray the king and prevent anyone from entering the castle..." stated the other guard.

"That's because Advisor Broo brainwashed you." explained Cherry.

"Oh. That explains why all of a sudden Roo Island is as creepy as the Haunted Woods." one of the armored Blumaroos said.

"You saved us from that evil dark lord in your last adventure, right? Maybe you should do something about this...and while you're at it maybe you should tell King Roo to hire more guards...things have gotten crazy around Neopia lately." stated the other armored Blumaroo.

Bloony nodded, as he and his partner entered the castle.

_Meanwhile at Kiko Lake..._

"You sure we should have left those two Neopets to take the blame for our actions?" questioned Luna.

"Don't worry about it...I'm sure they'll be fine. It's not like they had a prior record...and besides, look at what we've finally got!" answered Cyrus.

Luna glanced at the compass.

"Are you sure this is really it? I was expecting it to be more glamourous..." stated the Acara.

"It's not like an artifact can't be simplistic...after all, it was designed for simply for one thing..." argued Cyrus.

"Maybe, but it's still a rather important one. How would we ever find the elemental crystals without it?" spoke Luna.

"Good point...however, the elders told us that in order to get inside the temples we would also need a keystone corresponding to each one...hopefully this compass can lead us to those too..." said the Scorchio.

Curious, they decided to give the magical compass a test run...it pointed towards a stone that apparently was close to where the Earth Crystal was located.

"I guess this is the keystone to the Earth Crystal Temple...I guess we'll have to follow it." shrugged Cyrus.

And so the duo's search for the crystals began...

_Meanwhile in Neopia Central..._

As it turns out, Snotty and Redtooth were still running away from Officer Peanuts, who was toppling over Neopets and even entire Neohomes trying to catch Snotty and Redtooth.

"You can't run away from me, Villains of Darkness! Just wait until I get my hands on you!" exclaimed the deranged police officer.

Realizing just how fast the red Elephante was, Snotty and Redtooth decided to hide inside the theater where a movie was starting.

They even decided to purchase popcorn and some drinks, curiously enough. After all, they heard that the movie they were going to watch was supposed to be good.

As it turns out, it was an action movie about a bunch of criminals that always had run-ins with police.

"This movie is awesome!" Redtooth exclaimed.

Suffice to say they decided to sit down and watch the film from start to finish. They certainly hoped that it would do well at the box office, to say the very least. It certainly wasn't one of the worst movies ever made such as Everlasting Tale III: Flee to Faerieland or The Rubbish Dump Kids Movie.

However, in the process of getting absorbed into the movie, they forgot about the police chief that was single-mindedly pursuing them.

Of course, they would realize why they decided to visit the local cinema soon enough.

Suddenly, they noticed that one of the police officers in the movie bore a remarkable resemblance to Officer Peanuts, causing them to become curious.

"That's odd...isn't he that guy that was chasing us earlier?" questioned Redtooth.

"Ah yes...in fact, it looks like he's about to leap out at us..." agreed Snotty.

"Um, Snotty, this movie isn't in 3-D..." warned the Lupe.

"Wait, what?" questioned the green Blumaroo.

Suddenly, Officer Peanuts tore his way through the movie screen. The other Neopets that were witnessing the movie magic immediately fled along with Snotty and Redtooth.

"You thought you could hide from me, did you? Nice try! Nobody gets away from Officer Peanuts! I hope you enjoyed that movie, because it was the last one that you're ever going to see!" he yelled.

With that, he continued chasing Snotty and Redtooth.

_Elsewhere..._

Willis was getting rather annoyed. Apparently, Bloony along with his friend Cherry had taken out an entire squad of his thugs. It looked as if he had underestimated them.

"How am I going to get those two meddling kids out of my flippers? There's got to be something I can do..." wondered Willis.

"Can I sing a song for you?" asked the talking Uni head.

"No, I'm trying to concentrate right now." stated the Bruce.

After a few minutes of thinking...he suddenly got an idea of how to deal with the heroes that insisting on giving him so much trouble.

Pressing a button on his desk, a door marked "DO NOT OPEN" suddenly started rising.

Shortly afterwards, what appeared to be an army of evil robotic Myncis began running out of the Ski Lodge.

"Yes, my minions...soon the Heroes of Light will learn a lesson about dealing with the worst criminal of all time...I'm not on the top of the Defenders of Neopia's Most Wanted for petty theft, you know." stated Willis.

In fact, due to the fact that they did not realize what his real name was and because he loved to eat caviar, the Defenders of Neopia referred to him as the "Codfather".

Due to the fact that each of the robo-Myncis came with their own radar, it wouldn't be long until they found Bloony and his partner...and soon they would end up in the hospital from being attacked by the savage beasts. They would not be doing any more good things for a long time, to say for certain.

Satisfied, he then went back to eat his delicious spaghetti and caviar. He personally wondered if he would ever grow tired of the taste.

"Tasty..." he stated.

_Bloony and Cherry have decided to save Roo Island from Advisor Broo...similar how they saved it from Lord Cataclysm in their last adventure..._

_Also, Snotty and Redtooth are still being chased by Officer Peanuts...how long will it be until they reach a dead end?_

_Meanwhile...Willis has not given up in stopping the Heroes of Light from bringing him to justice...even though technically they're not aware of his existence...let alone that he's the leader of the thugs that have been bothering them lately..._

_And of course, Cyrus and Luna have begun their search for the crystals...but just how many Puppyblews will they kick along the way?_

_You'll find out in the next chapter..._


	7. Chapter 7: Old Friends

Saving Neopia II: Light and Darkness

_In this chapter, our heroes are going to reclaim Roo Island from Advisor Broo...he's really ruined Roo Island for everyone, hasn't he? They really can't let him get away with what he's done...they're the Heroes of Light, after all...and stopping evildoers is what they do best._

_Oh, and they're also going to meet some old pals...in fact, we're going to be making a couple of trios..._

**Chapter 7: Old Friends**

Bloony and Cherry stormed into the castle, ready to stop Advisor Broo from hurting any more innocent Blumaroos.

As it turns out, he was now wearing King Roo's crown...which he had redesigned to be silver and have spikes inside of it instead of it being bent. He was also sitting on his throne, although it was now silver and black instead of golden and red like usual. Unsurprisingly, he had changed the interior of the castle about as much as he had changed its exterior.

"So, you decided to come back. Funny, I believe I recall sending you to the ends of Neopia...maybe this time I should hurl you in space! I also see that you brought one of your little friends to help you." exclaimed the evil advisor.

Looking around, they discovered that King Roo was busy mopping the floor. He certainly didn't seem happy to have his kingdom and his crown taken away from him. For an evil villain, Advisor Broo seemed rather concerned about keeping his castle clean.

"Give back King Roo his throne! And quit treating him like a slave! He's a Neopet, not a Petpet! At least pay him Neopoints for his work!" exclaimed Bloony.

"Never! All he's ever been concerned about is playing all kinds of crazy games such as Dice-A-Roo and throwing parties. It's a miracle this island hasn't fallen apart. And yet you still insist on bringing this lunatic back to power..." stated Advisor Broo.

King Roo frowned. Was that really what all the other kings in Neopia thought of him? He all of a sudden felt like he had spent his reign doing absolutely nothing.

Cherry however was willing to stand up for him.

"He's not a bad king! He helped us out in our last adventure! If it weren't for him we probably wouldn't have even be able to leave Roo Island and defeat Lord Cataclysm!" exclaimed Cherry.

"Um, we didn't technically defeat Lord Cataclysm...Fallenova did, remember? She made him explode." pointed out Bloony.

"Well, we still stormed his castle and defeated most of his henchmen...I'm sure that if it weren't for us he would have won." argued Cherry.

"You actually have a good point, Cherry. I shudder to think about what had happened if we hadn't decided to start fighting evil." agreed the yellow Blumaroo.

"So what if he helped you during your last adventure. He should have done more than that! If it weren't for him maybe that dark lord wouldn't have come to power in the first place! I personally find some of the things he did to be rather disgusting...but where was I? Ah yes! If you insist on defying me..." continued Advisor Broo.

Suddenly, the gray Blumaroo stood up from his throne and started shooting magic at our heroes, ranging from fireballs, lightning bolts, to even polymorph spells that turned Neopets into Mortogs.

Immediately, Bloony and Cherry started jumping out of the way. But the spells simply kept on coming. They began to wonder if there was any sort of safe spot. Unfortunately, there wasn't.

"By all means, feel free to dodge my attacks. I can do this all day!" exclaimed the advisor, who kept firing spells after spell.

"Be careful, you guys!" warned King Roo, not wanting Bloony and Cherry to end up getting hurt.

"Keep mopping the floor, my slave." demanded Advisor Broo.

The former king of Roo Island simply sighed and continued trying to make the castle clean.

Suddenly, one of the spells went haywire and ended up striking the goofy Blumaroo instead, causing him to shrink.

"Can't...lift...this...mop..." said King Roo in a voice that was very squeaky.

The treacherous advisor facepalmed and cast another spell to turn him back to normal. Bloony and Cherry took this opportunity to run towards him.

The gray Blumaroo then decided to shoot a homing spell at the duo.

"Let's see you two dodge this." he taunted.

Due to the fact that our heroes were close to Advisor Broo and because the spell was rather accurate, they actually ended up being hit and were sent flying.

"Ow!" they both exclaimed.

"All too easy...I swear, I'm failing to see your reputation as heroes. And to think you saved all of Neopia..." he thought.

Bloony, realizing that he was running out of options, tried to take away Broo's staff using his telekinesis. Unfortunately, he had a rather tight grip, and he was unable to swipe it. Suffice to say the treacherous advisor was not amused.

"So, you like taking things that don't belong with you? I assure that you have a very short future if you keep trying that." he said.

Casting another spell, he then trapped Bloony in an hourglass...and to make matters worse it was filling up with sand.

"Let me out of here!" demanded the Blumaroo, who started banging against the glass. Was he going to drown?

However, this made Cherry really mad, and she decided to start fighting Advisor Broo herself.

"Let him go!" she demanded.

The evil Blumaroo simply laughed.

"Now why should I do that?. Surely you realize that the residents of Roo Island are completely and utterly useless to the rest of Neopia? Your friend over there didn't even save Neopia by himself...all he ever did was give out a bunch of orders and force other Neopets to do the work for him." stated the advisor.

"What did you say?!" yelled Cherry.

"I'm just saying that your friend over here is as brainless as a Spardel! The only difference is that he's the only one not to admit it!" taunted the evil Blumaroo.

As this point, something snapped inside of our heroine.

"That does it!" bellowed the Red Chia.

Suddenly, she started creating copy after copy of herself. Before long, Advisor Broo was heavily outnumbered.

Advisor Broo chuckled nervously.

"Is it too late to talk about this?" questioned the Blumaroo.

Shortly afterwards, the duplicated Chias then began to swarm the gray Blumaroo like a school of Jetsam. He tried casting spell after spell, but there were simply too many of them.

Eventually, one of the Chias manage to take his staff, which was promptly shattered.

This caused the hourglass around Bloony to shatter, which was fortunate as it was getting quite full and he was finding it hard to breathe.

"This reminds me of the time I was bullied at the beach..." stated the yellow Blumaroo.

Bloony then noticed that Advisor Broo was lying on the ground...his staff had been broken. Looking around him, he discovered that the castle and the rest of Roo Island were turning back to normal without his magical influence.

He then noticed the Merry-Go-Round. Knowing that Broo had outlawed fun and creativity during his short-lived reign, he decided what to do with him.

"Let's show you what it means to have fun, shall we?" stated Bloony.

Immediately, he picked up Advisor Broo by the scruff of the neck and then sat him down on one of the Unis. His heart sank once he realized what his enemy was going to do.

"No! Please!" exclaimed the advisor.

Bloony then set the Merry-Go-Round to maximum capacity...before long, the evil Blumaroo was sent flying...and to make matters worse for him, he ended up crashing on Count Von Roo's coffin, causing him to wake up. He immediately noticed the gray Blumaroo.

"Perfect...my coffin has been getting dusty...now I can create a vampire follower to clean it for me..." he stated.

Advisor Broo's eyes paled.

Before he could react, Count Von Roo bit him in the neck and before long he lost his free will and became another vampire.

"What is your bidding, my master?" he asked.

Von Roo pointed to the coffin and handed him a rag. Immediately, he started to clean.

_Meanwhile in King Roo's Castle..._

"Well, Bloony and Cherry, you managed to save my kingdom for a second time. But there's still something that bothers me. Advisor Broo stated that I was worthless and that I was a disgrace to all royalty in Neopia..." stated King Roo.

"Don't let it get it you, King Roo. I personally think that you're a good ruler...if it really bothers you, you can always try to improve as a ruler." answered Bloony.

Suddenly, King Roo got an idea.

"I know! I'll hire another guard! I just need to find someone that is willing to do the job. They say that three is a magic number. I learned that at a school." stated the king.

"It must have been a rather crazy one..." thought Cherry.

"Well, my neighbor Bluigi always dreamed about being one of them..." said the leader of the Heroes of Light. He was in fact one of the reasons that he had decided to set off on his adventure. After all, he was one of the many Neopets that had been brainwashed by Lord Cataclysm.

Suffice to say, Bluigi was rather excited to finally get the recognition he deserved...or at least how Bloony felt that he deserved.

As for Cherry, King Roo decided to let her eat some delicious nachoes. He in fact had quite a few bags of them.

"Om nom nom nom nom!" stated the red Chia.

Bloony and Cherry were glad that Roo Island was once again peaceful. Twice now had it been invaded by an evil villain that wanted to make it absolutely horrific.

Still, they couldn't help but think that they were forgetting something.

Suddenly, an old friend of theirs barged in.

"Marvin!" exclaimed Bloony and Cherry.

"Bloony and Cherry, listen! Horrible things have been happening to Neopia lately! Just listen to what's going on in the newspaper!" stated the green Mynci, handing Bloony a copy of the Neopian Times.

As it turns out, a group of campers had mysteriouly disappeared. Their campfire had been put out, and all that was found was green and orange slime.

"We actually already knew about that. Still, it's rather disturbing that the monster's eating children now." said Bloony. Nonetheless, he remembered about the horrible blob monster that was still at large.

"We need to do something!" exclaimed Marvin.

Bloony and Cherry nodded.

"You're leaving already?" questioned King Roo, who was rather upset to see his friends leave after they had just saved Roo Island again.

"Sorry your highness, but when you're a hero, you've got many places to go." stated the yellow Blumaroo.

"Just take care of yourself." said the king.

And so with their buddy Marvin, they decided to continue their search for Deluge. They couldn't let them eat more Neopets, now could they?

The only question was where he would strike next...in fact, it seemed that he was trying to hide from them...perhaps he was trying to gather strength before it went after the other former Cult of Apocalypse members?

Suffice to say Bloony was worried. They had to find the monster and fast.

_Meanwhile in Neopia Central..._

Snotty and Redtooth at this point were practically running for their lives. Officer Peanuts became more and more desperate in his pursuit. Already he had wrecked much of the town just trying to catch the two.

Getting desperate, Snotty and Redtooth decided to head into an office building, where curiously enough the Neopets Staff did their jobs. Hoping that Officer Peanuts would not tear it down trying to pursue them. Suffice to say, they attracted the attention of several Neopets who wondered why they had barged in without any sort of invitation.

Eventually, they came across a room with several doors.

"What's this room doing here?" questioned Snotty.

Curious, he decided to go through one of the doors...and ended up going through another one.

"Are these doors magic or something?" Redtooth wondered.

Suddenly, they heard the familiar trumpet of an Elephante, and realized that they needed to run once more.

A rather humourous chase ensued as the three of them began trying to use the doors to catch each other. At one point, Snotty and Redtooth found themselves chasing Officer Peanuts.

"Why the heck are we doing that?" questioned Redtooth.

"I don't know! These doors are insane! Speaking of which I wondered who invented these..." stated Snotty.

Suddenly, they noticed that Mr. Insane was also using these doors to avoid his pursuers...who in this case were a bunch of Neopets in white coats.

"It's time for you to go back home, Mr. Insane." stated one of the Neopets.

"Never!" bellowed Mr. Insane.

Also being chased was Judge Hog, who ironically was trying to escape from his loyal fans.

"Give us your autograph, Judge Hog!" demanded the crazy fanatics.

"But I'm busy! I'm needed to stop a bunch of crooks!" answered Judge Hog.

And curiously enough also being chased was Hanso...in this case he was being chased by Brynn, because he had stolen a bag of Neopoints.

"Oh c'mon! I just wanted a little extra cash..." stated Hanso.

"That doesn't mean you can go around stealing with others!" screeched Brynn.

Eventually, for some strange reason, Snotty and Redtooth found themselves on the top of the building.

"How did we get here?" asked Snotty.

"I guess sometimes Mr. Insane's doors do that. Makes us wonder why Neopets HQ even has an elevator." stated Redtooth.

It then occurred to them that they were at a dead end, as the only way out was back the way they came.

"Uh-oh..." said the green Blumaroo, realizing that they were now apparently concerned.

"You think we can jump between this building and the one over there?" questioned the blue Lupe.

Snotty then remembered the last time he had tried that...he had ended up in the hospital with a broken arm and a broken leg. And that was from jumping between much smaller buildings.

"I wouldn't recommend that." said the Blumaroo.

All of a sudden, they heard a sound that made their skin turn pale. Looking behind them, they discovered that Officer Peanuts had bashed down the door and was now on the roof of the building with them.

Immediately, he let out a big laugh.

"Did you think that it was that easy to get away from me, Villains of Darkness? Nobody gets away from Officer Peanuts!" exclaimed the deranged Elephante.

Slowly, he began to walk towards them, making stomping noises as he did so.

"What are we going to do? We've got nowhere to run!" exclaimed Snotty.

The green Blumaroo tried to stretch his arms to punch Officer Peanuts in the face, but unfortunately he just grabbed one and shook him like a rag doll. Immediately, he began to feel like jelly.

"Whoa!" he screamed.

The Elephante continued to walk towards them...he was apparently enjoying every minute of it, as he was doing so very slowly.

"Soon, you shall be behind bars forever, and I shall get paid enough Neopoints to make myself a millionaire!" exclaimed Officer Peanuts.

"You're probably just going to spend it all on donuts considering how fat you are." said Redtooth.

The Elephante looked offended, and he then cracked his knuckles.

"Choose your next words carefully, Villains of Darkness, it may be your last as free Neopets!" exclaimed the pachyderm.

"Rocky's got four words to say to you."

Looking around to see who was talking to him, Officer Peanuts was suddenly met with a club to the face.

"Leave Rocky's friends alone!" demanded the caveman Mynci.

Curious, the demented police chief decided to check the wanted posters Officer Lenny had given him. Sure enough, Rocky had his own mugshot and criminal record.

_WANTED: ROCKY_

_For throwing rocks at other Neopets, eating stop signs, using a Jubjub for a game of volleyball, using a dung catapult to decorate other Neopets' houses, yelling loud enough to break glass, sabotaging another Mynci's machines, burping the entire alphabet and disturbing other Neopets around him, and cheating his way through a game of Go-Go-Go._

_REWARD: 250,000 Neopoints_

"Rocky thought he was playing a game of Cheat." said Rocky.

Once again, Officer Peanuts immediately became furious. He charged towards the caveman...but curiously enough he did something smart.

After sidestepping the crazy Elephante, he once again whacked him in the club, this time in the leg.

This caused him to lose his balance and fall off the roof.

"Aah!" screamed Officer Peanuts.

"Is he going to be OK? To be honest I don't want this to be added to our record..." stated Snotty.

"I'll sure he'll be fine. That police officer is a freaking juggernaut...of course, that probably means we haven't seen the last of him, unfortunately." answered Redtooth.

"Rocky just glad that he could give you a hand." said Rocky.

"Why is there a kiss mark on your cheek?" asked the green Blumaroo.

The caveman Mynci did not answer, and simply wiped it off.

"No matter. Let's get out of here before any more police officers show up...I'm getting tired of dealing with them to be honest." stated Redtooth.

And so the two of them decided to make a hasty getaway...

...however, it turned out Redtooth was right about Officer Peanuts.

Immediately, the police chief rubbed his head as he slowly got back to his feet. He looked around him and discovered that he had fallen off the top of the Neopets HQ...and more importantly, the Villains of Darkness had gotten away from him.

Officer Lenny then walked up to him.

"So, how'd it go?" he asked.

Officer Peanuts grabbed Officer Lenny by the neck.

"I'll have the Villains of Darkness behind bars...just you wait!" bellowed the police chief.

He then dropped the yellow Lenny on the floor, as he began to gasp for air. Deciding to grab a cup of coffee and a box of donuts to cheer him up, he then went back to the police station.

_The Heroes of Light have saved Roo Island and have reunited with Marvin...just like the Villains of Darkness have reunited with Rocky..._

_But Officer Peanuts has not given up on introducing them to his own personal brand of justice...and of course the Heroes of Light have not yet found Deluge..._

_And of course...the Heroes of Light are being hunted down by an army of robotic monkeys...and Cyrus and Luna are searching for magical artifacts that they can eventually use to awaken a magical Draik that's kind of like a genie...although it doesn't neccessarily suffer from itty bitty living space as it lives inside a bunch of elemental crystals..._

_To make a long story short, things are going to heat up some more as our heroes' adventure continues...and our anti-heroes' adventure is going to continue to, I can tell you that._

_Adios!_


	8. Chapter 8: Hot Pursuit

Saving Neopia II: Light and Darkness

_Well, in this chapter...the Heroes of Light are going to continue pursuing Deluge...and the Villains of Darkness are going to try to get even with Cyrus and Luna for framing them for a crime they didn't commit._

_And interestingly enough, both of them are going to start kicking a few Puppyblews like they have before...although Deluge is going to kick a lot more of them...as you'll find out._

**Chapter 8: Hot Pursuit**

Investigating the site where the campers once were, Bloony immediately became curious. He wasn't surprised to see green slime littering the place, but what was peculiar was that there was orange slime there as well.

"How very odd...can the monster change color like a Neopet at the Rainbow Pool? Something fishy is going on..." said the Blumaroo.

Curious, Cherry decided to touch the orange goo...

...and she ended up burning herself.

"Ouch! Hot hot hot!" exclaimed the Chia.

"Cherry! What's the matter?" asked Bloony.

"This goo is boiling hot! What the heck is wrong with it?" bellowed Cherry, who began blowing on her stubby arm.

"Strange...the green goo seems to be at a pretty normal temperature." said Marvin.

Bloony then noticed that the campfire had mysterious been put out, and immediately he began to feel concerned.

"Apparently the monster can absorb not just Neopets, but it can also absorb fire, too...come to think of it, it might even be able to absorb Faerie magic...if I'm right, we may be in trouble. How are we supposed to fight it?" inquired the Blumaroo.

Suddenly, he heard something that sounded like earth moving.

"Um, Bloony..." warned Cherry.

Immediately, Bloony turned around and discovered that the nearby trees had come to life. Apparently Deluge had splattered them with his goo, and now they were attacking. And to make matters worse, some of them could walk.

"I thought trees were our friends..." stated Bloony, remembering that the Neopian Times were made using said trees.

"How could they walk like that? Trees are supposed to be rooting to the ground!" exclaimed Cherry.

"I guess the goo is giving it nutrients aside from making it aggressive..." pondered Marvin.

Some of the trees walked over to our heroes and swiped at our heroes, forcing them to duck. Others started pelting them with fruit.

"I'm blind!" exclaimed Marvin as a banana splattered on his face.

Unfortunately, this caused him to fire his weapons like crazy...most of which did not hit the trees and some of them ended up hurting our heroes.

"Ow! Quit it!" bellowed Bloony.

"Watch it buddy!" demanded Cherry.

Thankfully, the Mynci then pulled out a napkin and wiped the banana goop out of his eyes.

"That's better." stated Marvin the Mynci.

He then pulled out a flamethrower and started barbecuing the trees...this was rather effective, but unfortunately it didn't get all of them.

"Those trees sure look sturdy. Maybe we need to chop some of them down..." suggested Bloony.

"Good idea...but we don't have lumberjacking gear." pointed out Cherry.

On cue, Marvin handed them two axes.

"The amount of gear you can hold in your backpack is astounding, Marvin." applauded the yellow Blumaroo.

"Let's just say it never hurts to be prepared." answered the green Mynci.

Bloony and Cherry then began chopping the trees. Interestingly enough, they were taken by surprise, and as such they were able to cut through them like butter.

They even began to wonder if they should sing a song about it, although they eventually decided not to since they were rather busy nowadays.

"Get to the choppa!" squealed Cherry.

"Where's the helicopter? I don't see one." questioned a confused Bloony.

"I have a helicopter in case you guys were wondering..." answered Marvin.

"We don't need to fly right now." stated the yellow Blumaroo.

"Never mind then." said the green Mynci.

Curious, they decided to see if there was a trail they could use to follow Deluge. Unfortunately, it seemed that he was trying to hide from them from the time being and that it wasn't leaving a mess...although as the trees indicated he still was bringing inanimate objects to life.

"Clever boy..." thought Bloony.

They then noticed something rather peculiar...although it didn't seem to have anything to do with Deluge...it seemed that there were several robotic Myncis...and that they were searching for somebody.

"Funny, these robots look kind of like something I would make...then again, they look rather aggressive..." stated Marvin.

"Are you saying you didn't make these robots, Marvin?" questioned Bloony.

Marvin shook his head.

"How very odd..." thought Cherry.

Suddenly, one of the robots turned towards our heroes, and immediately it let out a screech.

"Uh-oh..." murmured Bloony.

Immediately, the monkey robots started rushing towards our heroes...to make a long story short, they got ready to defend.

Well, two of them did.

"Get them off me!" demanded Marvin, who as it turns out was being swarmed by the vicious robots.

Cherry blasted the robo-Myncis away with one of her sonic burps, then helped the regular Mynci to his feet.

As for Bloony, he started using his telekinetic powers to crash the robotic Myncis into one another.

"Why don't I use this more often? Surely it would have saved me a lot of trouble..." questioned the Blumaroo.

However, as it turns out, the robotic Myncis had more than one trick up their sleeve. Immediately, they started shooting laser beams out of their eyes. Thankfully, these weren't very deadly, but they stung nonetheless.

"Ow!" exclaimed Cherry. Just who exactly made these robotic Myncis? It certainly couldn't have been Professor Nyctus...after all, he had been consumed by a blob monster not too long ago.

Marvin pulled out a Bzzt Blaster and started shortcircuiting the metallic Neopets...as it turns out, this was a rather effective tactic, as this rapidly shut them down.

"These robo-Myncis just keep getting more random...who the heck even built these? Dr. Sloth? Then again I recall putting an end to his evil schemes in my last adventure..." thought Bloony.

It also became apparent that some of the Robo-Myncis also had self-destruct buttons on their backs...immediately, the leader of the Heroes of Light became curious.

"Why did he even put those there? That's not something I would do if I wanted to build a robot army..." questioned the yellow Blumaroo.

Suddenly, they heard roaring, and the sound of something mechanical approaching. Immediately, they noticed that apparently the mecha Myncis had a leader...in this case it was a robot mutant Mynci.

"A mutant robot? I'm confused...is this a result of an experimental paint brush or something? Mutants and robots seem like an odd combination..." pondered Cherry.

The mutant robo-Mynci then turned its arm into a cannon...which it then fired at our heroes.

"Whoa!" Bloony exclaimed.

"This is going to get messy..." said Marvin.

Suffice to say, there was an explosion, and Bloony and Cherry were sent flying.

"Whoa!" exclaimed the yellow Blumaroo.

"I'm getting dizzy!" yelled the red Chia.

"Funny, I actually wasn't hit this time..." thought Marvin.

It then became apparent that the state-of-the-art robot Mynci was much tougher than the rest of its kind.

Shortly afterwards, a laser cannon then came out of the robot's back. It then began charging.

"3, 2, 1..." muttered the Robo-Mynci.

Suddenly, a laser beam was fired out of the cannon...thankfully, our heroes dodged in time, but it nonetheless did quite some damage to the environment.

"That laser cannon is powerful stuff!" exclaimed Cherry.

"Thank goodness it gave us a warning!" agreed Marvin.

Curious, Bloony noticed that there was also a button on the metal Mynci's back saying "Do Not Press". He decided not to follow directions and press it anyway.

However, instead of self-destructing like he thought it would, it instead began to short-circuit. While this nonetheless hurt the robot, this also made it really mad.

Immediately, a jetpack appeared out of its back, and it started flying high into the air, dropping bombs on the Heroes of Light's heads.

"Run for cover!" demanded Bloony.

Our heroes did so...since of course, they did not want to get blown to smithereens.

Afterwards, the jetpack ran out of fuel, so the mutant Robo-Mynci started to repeat the same pattern. However, this time, it decided to fire two rockets instead of just one. Once again, our heroes leaped out of the way.

"It seems that the Robo-Mynci has decided to quit playing around with us...I guess I'll have to press the button again." thought Bloony.

Unfortunately, as soon as the yellow Blumaroo attempted to so, he ended up being swatted away.

"Oh right...I guess it knows its weakness now. Lousy artificial intelligence..." he murmured.

Thankfully, Marvin also happened to have a jetpack...in his case, he used it to sneak behind the Robo-Mynci and press its button again.

Unsurprisingly, this caused the mutant Robo-Mynci to get zapped again...and of course, it became furious.

Immediately, it once again used its jetpack...and it swatted Marvin out of the sky.

"Ow! Ow! Ow!" he bellowed as soon as he hit the ground.

"Are you OK?" questioned Cherry.

"I think so...this mutant Robo-Mynci means business!" exclaimed the green Mynci.

As before, the mutant robotic Mynci started throwing bombs at our heroes' heads...however, there were now more explosives to worry about.

Suddenly, Cherry got an idea. She picked up one of the bombs and threw it at the metal Mynci.

This worked surprisingly well. Blinded by its aggression, the Robo-Mynci failed to notice that it was coming...and it ended up crashing into the ground from the blast.

The red Chia then took the opportunity to press the button on its back one last time...

This time the robot exploded...although unlike the weaker Robo-Myncis it actually burst into pieces rather than simply experience obliteration.

Curious, Bloony decided to read the label he had noticed on the robot's leg.

"Property of the Flippers Family. #300."

"Wait, 300? That's not good! There might be more of those mechanical Neopets where that came from...and just who the heck is the Flippers Family?" warned the yellow Blumaroo.

"You think this has anything to do with the thieves that ambushed us in Neopia Central?" questioned Cherry.

"It looks that way...whoever is leading this so-called family clearly wants us to stop interfering with their business." pondered Marvin.

"If that's the case, we'll need to keep an eye out. Something tells me that there's going to be even worse things ahead..." said Bloony.

_Meanwhile in Meridell..._

Cyrus and Luna were busy searching Meridell...however, in the process, they were making a mess of things.

The Shapeshifter became known as the Backburner when Cyrus shot a fireball and then set him on fire.

"Stop, drop, and roll!" screamed the Christmas Ixi as she tried to put out the flames.

"Dang nabbit! I was about to get the avatar!" screamed a Shoyru that was trying to figure out the puzzle.

A Mortog exploded when Luna shot one of her ice spells, which annoyed a Skeith that was playing the game.

"Hey! No fair! I was about to get 10000 Neopoints!" he bellowed.

And to top it all off, they destroyed the archery targets that were being used for games of Ultimate Bullseye. The Turtum that was in charged whimpered sadly.

As it turns out, they wanted to get everything out of their way before they began searching. All the while, they began getting closer to their destination.

Eventually, they determined that the keystone to the Earth Temple was located inside the Symol Hole. The problem was how they were going to get inside. After all, only a Petpet could actually get through.

All of a sudden, Luna noticed that there was a Symol cuddling up against her leg. Getting annoyed, she decided to kick it down into the pit.

"It looks like we're going to need someone to dig the hole up..." stated Cyrus.

"I guess we'll have to start looking..." said Luna.

Shortly afterwards, the farmers of Meridell found themselves in a rather unusual situation...two Neopets were destroying their crops using fire and ice. They immediately cowered in terror.

Afterwards, Cyrus and Luna approached them.

"What do you want?" demanded one of the rural Neopets.

"Oh, nothing much." stated the Scorchio.

"Just do as we say and we won't hurt you." answered the Acara.

The farmers nodded their heads nervously.

After forcing the citizens of Meridell to dig up the Symol Hole for them...it became apparent how deep it was.

"I don't think we should jump down." stated Luna.

Thankfully, Cyrus was actually feeling nice after terrorizing the suburbs of Meridell simply so he could dig for treasure, so he decided to grab Luna and use his wings to gradually descend into the pit.

"That was a little embarrasing..." stated the Acara.

"You grab me for your teleport spells all the time." answered the Scorchio.

"Oh, yeah..." sweatdropped Luna.

And so the two of them decided to search the caverns.

_Meanwhile in Neopia Central..._

"So, why police guy chasing you?" questioned Rocky.

"Well, you see Rocky, we got framed for a crime we didn't commit." answered Redtooth.

"Two rather mysterious Neopets came into the museum while we were going on a tour and made off with this golden compass." said Snotty. "Apparently it leads to some crystals that can be used to grant wishes...I can't really remember to be honest."

"Want to read another copy of Neopian Times? Things have gotten really crazy in Neopia as of late..." asked the Lupe.

Curious, the Blumaroo decided to read the latest copy.

Apparently, two mysterious Neopets had launched an attack on Meridell. They had attacked the Shapeshifter, blew a Mortog to smithereens, and had destroyed much of the crops that the farmers had worked so hard to grow.

Of course, the police chief believed that the Villains of Darkness were responsible for the crime spree that had affected Neopia lately, and told everyone in Neopia that he would not rest until they were brought to justice.

Immediately, Snotty became furious.

"What? How dare they! Thanks to them, everyone thinks that we're outlaws! C'mon, you two, let's go to Meridell and get our revenge on them for this horrible frameup!" exclaimed Snotty.

"I don't know Snotty...remember all those times we tried getting revenge on the Heroes of Light? Every time we did that, we ended up being humilated!" warned Redtooth.

"Rocky still shudders after the night they sent us flying away on a catapult..." agreed Rocky.

"Yeah, but these two actually deserve to be punished for what they've done! I mean, think about it! Look at how all the property damage they've inflicted already! Those two must be desperate to find the crystals or something!" bellowed the green Blumaroo.

"You have good point there...besides, maybe we can use crystals to grant wish?" said Rocky.

"That's actually a good idea Rocky! Maybe we can wish for treasure or something! That at least won't get us in trouble with the law, right?" questioned the blue Lupe.

"Yes...of course, if we do that, we probably won't even consider stealing anymore...talk about awkward..." pondered Snotty.

Eventually, all three Villains of Darkness decided that it would be a good idea to get revenge on the duo th

And so the three decided to head off to Meridell to teach Cyrus and Luna a lesson about disturbing the peace as they searched for the crystals...

_In a local town not far from Neopia Central..._

The local residents were having a good day. Their quiet town was rather prosperous, although they didn't receive many tourists.

In fact, they were about to celebrate the first anniversary. The mayor was of course hosting the said occasion. He was a Brown Meerca wearing a monocle and a top hat.

"Greetings everyone. You may already know this, but it's been a whole year since this town was built by my father! How about that, eh? I have to admit, we've had some difficulties, but so far this place has been a success! Already we're racking up the dough...perhaps if we're lucky this town shall become as big as Neopia Central! Of course, in order to do that, we'll have to create more buildings..." stated the mayor.

The residents of the town clapped and cheered.

"Now then, I've given you all some badges so that you can celebrate! Won't that be fun?" squealed the mayor.

Every villager nodded.

Suddenly, an Eyrie noticed that there seemed to be something approaching.

"Someone's coming!" exclaimed the Eyrie.

"Hmm? Is it another visitor...if that's the case, we're have a hundred and one citizens!" shouted the mayor.

"Funny, I read a book about one hundred and one Spotted Spardels..." spoke a Gelert.

However, it slowly became apparent that said resident wasn't a Neopet...in fact, it was something...slimy.

"Wait a minute...that's not a Neopet..." said the Meerca.

Suddenly, they noticed that an enormous ball of slime was being launched straight towards them.

"Incoming!" bellowed the mayor.

Thankfully, all of the villagers were able to get out of the way. But they were completely caught offguard by what happened next.

Many slimes came out of the puddle that Deluge had created, and they began swallowing the villagers whole. Immediately, everyone began to panic, even the mayor.

"What's going on?!" screamed the Meerca.

Deluge kept firing projectile and projectile, until eventually the entire town was overrun.

The mayor in fact was eaten by the blob personally, still wondering what was happening.

"Why?!" he bellowed as he was consumed.

The slimes then returned themselves to Deluge, who at that point was now much bigger than before.

"Yes...soon I shall have everything I need to absorb the Cult of Apocalypse members into me...and maybe when I'm finished I'll absorb the Heroes of Light as well..." he thought, letting out an evil laugh.

_It looks like Cyrus and Luna are getting pretty close to finding what they need to unlock the Earth Temple...but will the Villains of Darkness be able to stop them before they can do so?_

_And of course, can the Heroes of Light stop Deluge before he locates one of the ex-Cult of Apocalypse members? He's doing a pretty good job of playing Kadoatie and Miamouse with them so far..._

_Last but not least, what crazy action will Officer Peanuts and Willis take against the Villains of Darkness and Heroes of Light next? Again, you'll find out more in the upcoming chapters..._

_Once again, feel free to leave me a review!_


	9. Chapter 9: Down With The Farm

Saving Neopia II: Light and Darkness

_Well, in this chapter, the Villains of Darkness will arrive in Meridell...but unfortunately they'll attract the attention of the local farmers who want to collect the bounties that are on their heads..._

_And of course, the Heroes of Light will keep trying to track down Deluge...he's a rather slippery fellow...he is made out of slime, after all But will they able to stop him in time?_

_For now, let's start this chapter and see what happens next...that's why you're reading this chapter, am I right?_

**Chapter 9: Down With The Farm**

As they started searching Meridell for Cyrus and Luna, the Villains of Darkness immediately noticed how bad things had gotten. It looked as if a tornado had swept through the countryside.

"Sheesh...I don't think we've ever done this much property damage before..." thought Snotty, recalling the days when they had knocked down garbage cans and the like.

"I guess we really should do something about Cyrus and Luna...we have decided to quit being evil after all." spoke Redtooth.

"But Rocky liked being evil! Being evil is so much fun!" complained Rocky, not wanting to give up his old ways.

"You don't want the police to come after us again, do you? We've already got enormous criminal records as it is, and nowadays the police are crazy." questioned the green Blumaroo.

The caveman Mynci sadly nodded, not wanting handcuffs to end up in his wrists and not ending up getting taken away towards a high-security prison.

Curiously enough, they noticed that the King Skarl statue was mysteriously untouched. Perhaps Cyrus and Luna had standards? Or had they decided not to search there?

Snotty decided to give the statue a quick look...and noticed that there were words etched underneath it.

_Here lies King Skarl, our kind and benevolent ruler, who was poisoned during a horrible attack by Lord Kass.._

"Now that's just plain sad. Who exactly would do that to him? He was like my idol! I wonder who's going to rule the kingdom now that he's gone..." exclaimed the green Blumaroo.

"Funny, I thought Lord Kass perished after his deal with The Three...did he spontaneously return from the dead or something? By the way, I didn't know that King Skarl was your idol. I thought it would be Lord Darigan or Dr. Sloth or even The Darkest Faerie." replied the blue Lupe.

"Well, yeah! He never did his job right! All he ever did was listen to a bunch of corny jokes and eat food all day...I wish I were king of Meridell now that I think of it. I would have power and no responsibility! Of course, I'm a fan of Lord Darigan and Dr. Sloth too...although personally The Darkest Faerie creeps me out..." exclaimed Snotty.

"Well, when you put it that way...Rocky guesses that he can understand. Rocky wish he was King of Meridell too." answered Rocky, wondering what it would be like.

"Won't your subjects eventually rise against you if you decide to turn the Meridell monarchy into a dictatorship?" questioned Redtooth.

"Oh, right." agreed the leader of the Villains of Darkness. He certainly didn't want any peasantsa to barge in and take away his crown.

Curious, they decided to look around to see if they could salvage anything from the wreckage. Instead, they found three wanted posters with their names on them, and all the horrible crimes they had committed.

"Uh-oh..." thought the green Blumaroo, realizing that bounty hunters would likely come after them.

Suddenly, one of the farmers who had his crops destroyed by Cyrus and Luna spotted the Villains of Darkness.

"It's them! It's the Neopets that the police claimed destroyed our crops! Get them, guys!" demanded the farmer.

Shortly afterwards, the Villains of Darkness found themselves under attack by the local bumpkins.

"Well, this isn't our day." said Redtooth. Would he and his friends end up being arrested again? It certainly wasn't something to look forward to, considering the fact that a certain Elephante planned to have them locked away at a maximum-security prison where they would probably never able to escape.

In fact, he wondered if he would ever be a free Neopet if they ever got caught. Would they even see the light of day again? Officer Peanuts certainly wouldn't be generous with them after everything he had done to bring them to justice.

Curiously enough, the farmers turned out to be more of a threat to them than the local police force. Not only were they organized, they also didn't play with their weapons, and actually had a few plans for attacking the anti-heroes.

"Eat Slorg-B-Gone, you filthy pests!" bellowed an angry Yurble, who was riding an enormous cannon.

Immediately, the Villains of Darkness found themselves being bombarded with many, many Slorgs. They quickly ran for cover behind a conveniently large tree.

"Is anyone hit?" questioned Snotty.

"Not me." answered Rocky.

"Aargh! Get it off me! Get it off me!" demanded Redtooth. As it turns out, he had a Slorg on his face.

Our anti-hero immediately peeled the Slorg off of his face...but unfortunately it still left a slime trail. The blue Lupe frantically wiped his face off.

"Still freaking out about your hygiene, I see." said Snotty.

"I freaking hate Slorgs! Why do they have to exist in Neopia?" bellowed Redtooth.

"Rocky guesses the Neopets Staff had too much time on their hands." shrugged Rocky.

Unfortunately, a few of the farmers discovered their hiding place and started poking them with their rather pointy pitchforks.

"Ow! Quit it, you disgusting hillbillies!" demanded the Chia hunter.

"Your pointy stick hurts! Get it away from Rocky!" bellowed Rocky.

"Good thing I found this from digging in the trash." spoke Snotty, pulling out a Bent Fork.

Immediately, all of the farmers' pitchforks became useless.

"Dang nabbit! Now how are we going to collect their bounties? These pitchforks are useless now!" bellowed one of the farmers.

"I guess we'll have to go to the shop to get new ones..." answered another harvester.

"Retreat!" they screamed.

"Wait a minute...you dug in the trash?!" bellowed Redtooth. He was rather surprised that his best friend would do such a thing.

"What can I say? I started to feel an itch to steal stuff again...so I figured why not take something that people don't use anymore?" questioned Snotty.

"Rocky guesses he can see the logic in that." agreed Rocky, although he wasn't too pleased with Snotty himself.

Suddenly, another one of the farmers (in this case, a Skeith) came by...and he was riding an angry Moehog!

"Giddy up!" demanded the rural Neopet.

"Fine fine fine." reluctantly agreed the Moehog.

Unsurprisingly, the two of them charged at our anti-heroes...and to make a long story short, they had to jump out of the way to avoid being toppled like dominoes.

Luckily, the Moehog kept on going...and eventually, the duo ended up crashing.

"Ow..." they both murmured.

"Is that all the farmers got?" questioned Snotty.

Suddenly, they heard the sound of a tractor engine, and they realized that something was wrong.

"Wait a minute..." said Redtooth.

Shortly afterwards, the Villains of Darkness immediately scattered...right before the tractor knocked the tree they had taken cover behind earlier to the ground.

"That's one strong tractor." spoke Rocky.

"Run!" bellowed the green Blumaroo.

And so the terrible trio did...much like they ran away from the crazed police chief known as Officer Peanuts. Thankfully, they did not have to run for long...as the tractor quickly ran out of fuel.

"Darn it! I knew I should have bought more fuel for this thing! Ugh, this happened at the worst possible time!" screamed the angry Ixi farmer.

Frustrated, he decided to head towards the local shop to see if he could get the tractor up and running again.

"Is it finally over?" questioned Snotty, not looking forward to fighting any more farmers.

"Well, there's still that Yurble over there that keeps firing Slorgs..." said Redtooth.

"Rocky's gonna wreck it!" bellowed Rocky.

As so the caveman Mynci did, yelling at the top of his lungs as he did so. Due to the fact that the Yurble farmer was caught by surprise, the Slorg-B-Gone ended up being totaled.

"Curses! Now the Slorgs are going to overrun my farm!" screamed the furious Yurble.

"Why would he be shooting Slorgs out of a cannon to stop them from eating his crops?" wondered Snotty.

"I also have to question the logic in that." agreed Redtooth.

"Now then, let's search for that hocus pocus duo now that we've got all the farmers out of the way..." ordered the leader of the Villains of Darkness.

And so our anti-heroes began to search for the ones that had framed them for crimes they ironically themselves had done in the past.

_Meanwhile in Neopia Central..._

"Hmm, I can't seem to find any more signs of the monster anymore...just slime, slime, and more slime." said Bloony.

"You think we should check the news again? Maybe it already left Neopia Central..." suggested Cherry.

"OK but the next issue of the Neopian Times isn't out yet." answered the yellow Blumaroo.

"Really? We seem to be reading the newspaper a lot these days..." spoke the green Mynci.

Like they did in our last adventure, they decided to head to Cherry's home. Immediately, they were greeted by Cherry's family.

"Ah, Cherry! How are you doing, my little angel? I see that you brought your friends!" exclaimed Cherry's father.

"I think we might need your help again...we're dealing with another abomination that wants to destroy Neopia..." said Bloony.

"What? That's awful!" answered Cherry's mother. "And to think you defeated Lord Cataclysm just a year ago!"

"Yes, father...and to make matters worse it can absorb pretty much anything it touches into itself...in fact, it keeps getting more and more powerful." continued Cherry.

"Wah!" cried Cherry's baby brother. Apparently he was frightened. Despite the fact that a year has passed, he really hadn't aged a day.

"Sheesh, I thought these monsters only appeared in comic books...I guess I was wrong." murmured Cherry's older brother.

"How can we help you? Is there's anything we can do, just ask us! In fact, you might want to give us a phone call or two...we miss you whenever you're not at home..." inquired Cherry's father.

"Oh, we just need to check the news channel to see if we can find its whereabouts." answered Bloony.

"Alright then." answered Cherry's mother.

To make a long story short, they sat down to watch the television. Immediately, the realized they had a problem...the remote was nowhere to be found. In fact, it appeared as if it had vanished into thin air.

"Where'd it go? It's got to be around the house somewhere." questioned Bloony.

Our heroes began to search around, but unfortunately they couldn't find it anywhere.

"Darn it! Now how are we going to change the channel?" inquired Cherry.

"I guess we'll just have to do it manually..." said Marvin.

And so our heroes changed the channel until they were watching the news. Afterwards, they decided to see if they could find anything that was related to the monster.

"In other news, the one hundred citizens of the Super Fun Happy Town have mysteriously disappeared after its first anniversary." stated the Bruce with the microphone.

"All that was found was mysterious, oozing slime...in fact, the whole town looked as if it had been overrun with it. Police are currently investigating the unusual event." continued the Aisha who ironically enough also had a microphone.

"Darn it! That monster just ate a small town right underneath our noses! How could we have missed that!" yelled Bloony.

"I found the remote. It was underneath the couch for some strange reason." answered Marvin.

"Well, it's a bit late to tell us that now. And that doesn't matter at this point. What matters is that the monster is still on the loose and it just ate enough Neopets to make Cherry seem like a vegetarian!" the yellow Blumaroo shouted. "No offense, Cherry."

Cherry simply shrugged. "I do always eat a lot...maybe I should eat some asparagus or something? Then again some Chias are painted as vegetables or fruit..."

"By the way, do you hear something?" asked the Bruce.

"Yes, actually, it sounds like it's coming from the back room..." answered the Aisha.

Suddenly, the two Neopets were overwhelmed by Deluge, who broke into the studio and swallowed them whole.

Shortly afterward, the channel went into static. Apparently he had broken the camera during the chaos.

Cherry gasped in horror. It was just like what happened in Kreludor! And now it was happening to the rest of Neopia!

"Well, this is just perfect! Now how are we going to find out more information of that abomination? At this rate it's going to as big as Faerieland Castle itself!" yelled Bloony.

"You're right, Bloony. Just how are we going to track it down now?" questioned Marvin.

"Well, it said that it wanted to eat the other Cult of Apocalypse members...maybe we should try to find them...but just what member of the group would he try to eat first?" questioned the yellow Blumaroo.

Our heroes then remembered that Shuriken decided to continue his training with the Techo Master...and that therefore he was likely at Mystery Island...which was across the sea from Neopia Central.

"You think Deluge is going to attack Shuriken first? I don't think he'd be able to outrun him considering how quickly he eats..." questioned Marvin.

"Probably...I don't think water would be much of an obstacle to him either...I believe he can probably absorb it just like he can absorb fire..." pointed out Bloony.

"Won't we need a boat to get to Mystery Island? Something tells me that Deluge might be terrorizing the docks as we speak..." suggested Cherry.

"I'm afraid so, Cherry. I don't think we could swim that far without ending up sleeping with the fishes." agreed the yellow Blumaroo.

"Its name is Deluge?" questioned Marvin. He began to wonder if Cherry had made up the name or if the blob monster had actually named itself.

"But where exactly are we going to get a sea vessel? It'd probably get a lot of Neopoints just to get onboard one of those..." inquired Marvin.

Suddenly, Cherry remembered about a crew of pirates she had joined last adventure...perhaps they would want to give her a hand?

"Maybe we could ask the Black Pawkeet...I helped them defeat Captain Scarblade the last time we had to save Neopia..." pointed out the red Chia.

"Good idea, but I don't exactly look forward to working with a bunch of pillagers...in case you don't remember, I had a run-in with two thieves that were trying to rob a bank." contradicted Bloony.

"Well, considering we're dealing with a slimy beast that eats everything in sight and is rapidly growing in power, perhaps we should consider that." agreed the green Mynci.

"Well, I'm outvoted two-to-one...and to be honest I'm starting to agree with Marvin...so let's call up Garin and his crew of sea pillagers. Surely they'll know what to do about all this nonsense." spoke Bloony.

And so the Heroes of Light made preparations to meet up with the Black Pawkeet...hoping they would be able to help them destroy Deluge before he ate any more innocent Neopets.

_Meanwhile in Neopia Central..._

Deluge smiled to himself. Already he had grown over twice as large as he was before...and he was still growing. So far he had received virtually no resistance from the Neopets that he had been consuming, allowing him to continue to feast.

"This is just too easy..." thought the blob.

Suddenly, he discovered that the police had arrived on the scene. Apparently they were aware of his latest snack.

"Freeze, you horrible slime thing! Otherwise we'll shoot!" demanded the cops.

"About time." Deluge thought.

Immediately, the police opened fire on the blob...but after all the Neopets it had consumed they had very little effect. In fact, they boucned right off of him.

"Still too easy." thought the blob monster.

Afterwards, Deluge then consumed the police force...unsurprisingly, they tasted just like donuts and coffee.

At this point, he realized that maybe it was time to leave Neopia Central and head out to the sea...maybe that way the Heroes of Light wouldn't be able to find him...and perhaps if he was lucky he would be able to find and absorb one of the core Cult of Apocalypse members.

He then decided to head to the local dock.

"Yes...it won't be long now until not even the Heroes of Light will be able to stop me..." he thought.

As it turns out, there was an entire cruise ship getting ready to sail. Deluge immediately smiled upon his good fortune.

After stowing away onboard the ship, Deluge then began eating the passengers...which unfortunately equaled about two hundred and fifty. He then smiled as he continued to grow once more, up until the point where he was about seven feet tall.

Unfortunately, due to the fact that he had swallowed the captain, the cruise ship then crashed into a rock and sank into the ocean depths...causing him to fall into the ocean as well.

Fortunately for Deluge, he was capable of floating...curious, he started to absorb the water around him, causing him to turn blue. He then smiled as he started to swim across the ocean, looking for even more Neopets to eat.

At this point, he decided he was ready start looking for Cult of Apocalypse members...perhaps if he was lucky, he would find one of the founding members and gain a massive power increase.

"Now to start looking for Cult of Apocalypse members...they can run from me, but they can't hide..." he thought.

_Deluge simply will not stop growing, can the Heroes of Light find him before he starts eating Cult of Apocalypse members? Can the Villains of Darkness find Cyrus and Luna before they cause any more harm to innocent Neopets during their quest?_

_And will I stop asking questions like these? I guess you'll have to find out in the next chapter..._


	10. Chapter 10: Out To Sea

Saving Neopia II: Light and Darkness

_In this chapter, we're going to see Officer Peanuts and Willis again...unsurprisingly, they're rather persistent on trying to bring their enemies to their version of justice...but what crazy thing will they send after our heroes and anti-heroes next?_

_And of course, our heroes and anti-heroes are going to keep trying to stop their archenemies from their plans...that's what they do after all..._

**Chapter 10: Out To Sea**

Officer Peanuts stood in his chair, waiting for the Quiggle Brothers to give him his cup of coffee and delicious, creamy donuts like they usually did.

"Hurry up already or you're fired! I don't have all day!" demanded the officer.

Immediately, two Quiggles hopped into his office and did as the police chief demanded.

"Good, Wart and Gorf...now I can finally drink some more coffee and eat some delicious doughnuts..." spoke Officer Peanuts.

As it turns out, Wart was a red Quiggle who had his police badge on the right side of his uniform, while his brother Gorf was a green Quiggle who had his police badge on the left side of his uniform.

"You sure you should be eating those, boss? You're getting kind of chubby. Maybe you should go on a d-" asked Wart.

"Don't talk to me like that or I'll dock your pay for twenty thousand years!" bellowed Officer Peanuts.

"OK, boss! We're sorry! We won't call you fat again!" apologized Gorf.

"You had better not!" screamed the Elephante. "Now then, hand me my copy of the Neopian Times. I want to read the funnies, like The Cashews and Kennedy the Kadoatie. They always make me laugh, unlike you and your lousy jokes."

Wart and Gorf sweatdropped as they handed their boss his copy of the latest issue of the Neopian Times.

Curious, Officer Peanuts began to read the newspaper...

Suddenly, he spat out his coffee on Wart's face, and hurled his donuts in anger. Unfortunately for Gorf, one of them was lodged in his throat, and since they were creamed donuts, he began to cough and gag.

"Yeowch!" screamed Wart. Being scalded by coffee was never fun, as it left burns that did not feel good when they were on your skin.

"Those freaking delinquents have been spotted in Meridell! They're probably heading to Brightvale as we speak! This won't do at all!" bellowed Officer Peanuts.

"But I'm not sure if there's anything that we can actually do about this...I think we're outside our legal jurisdiction now..."said Gorf.

"Of course there's something that we can do! And who cares about our legal jurisdiction, anyway? Go to Meridell and bring those cretins to me!" screamed the Elephante, handing Wart and Gorf an Ultra Bubble Gun and a Portable Kiln respectively.

"You sure this is a good idea, boss? Those weapons look like they're incredibly dangerous! I don't think we should play with them!" questioned Gorf.

"Just do it already or you're fired! In fact, I'll make sure you that you remain forever unemployed!" demanded the police chief.

Reluctantly, the two Quiggles did as they were told, and they hopped out of Officer Peanut's office.

Afterwards, he went back to drinking coffee and eating donuts as usual.

_Meanwhile in Meridell..._

"You think they went down there? It looks like someone dug the Slorg Hole up..." questioned Redtooth.

"How are we going to get down there?" asked Snotty.

"Simple. Geromino!" exclaimed Rocky, jumping down the hole.

Unsurprisingly, due to the fact that it was a fairly long drop, Rocky ended up hurting himself.

"Ow!" he exclaimed.

"Er, you alright down there?" inquired Redtooth.

"Rocky thinks so...but it's really dark!" said the caveman Mynci.

"I still think we shouldn't go down there like Rocky did..." suggested Snotty.

"That's OK...maybe we can buy some rope from the store...something tells me that the farmers won't try to attack us again...at least not for a while." said Redtooth.

"If you say so. While we're at it maybe we should get some miner helmets as well...that way we'll be able to actually see where we're going." answered the green Blumaroo.

Unfortunately, as Snotty and Redtooth discovered, the store known as Merry Supplies For Everyone was closed due to the chaos they had caused.

"Darn it! Why does the store have to be closed when we need it the most!" screamed Redtooth.

"I guess we're just going to have to break in." answered Snotty.

"I thought we weren't going to be villains anymore." pointed out the blue Lupe.

"This is for the greater good." stated the green Blumaroo.

"If you say so." said Redtooth.

After busting down the doors, the two Neopets then began to search for supplies. Due to the fact that the storeowner had turned off the lights, it was a bit hard to find what they were looking for. But soon enough, Redtooth found something.

"Hey! There's rope on sale right over here!" exclaimed the blue Lupe.

"Perfect! Now all we need is a light source. But where can we find one?" asked Snotty.

Suddenly, the green Blumaroo noticed there were several miner helmets right behind him.

"Well, speak of Dr. Sloth!" exclaimed the green Blumaroo.

Immediately, Snotty and Redtooth put the miner helmets on their heads. Shortly afterwards, the store began to illuminate.

"I guess these actually work." spoke Snotty.

Bringing an extra miner helmet for Rocky, the two of them then tied a rope to the Symol Hole and then lowered themselves into the hole.

"That worked surprisingly well." noted Redtooth.

"Hey, where's Rocky, anyway? I don't see him even with these helmets." questioned Snotty.

"Over here!" exclaimed the caveman.

As it turns out, he was trying to fight Slorgs and Spyders by blindly crushing them with his club...apparently there were many Petpets down there that had gone insane from being trapped in the Symol Hole for so long.

"Sheesh...I don't think I ever want to drop a Petpet down here after seeing this...especially after I just got a Petpet Protection League badge..." said Redtooth.

Thankfully, the Slorgs and Spyders were rather weak individually, so our anti-heroes had few problems taking them down.

Unfortunately, there were even tougher Petpets ahead. Namely, aggressive Symols that didn't appreciate the Villains of Darkness from invading their territory.

"Get them off me!" bellowed Redtooth, trying to prevent the Symols from clawing into his flesh.

"What do you think I'm trying to do?" answered Snotty.

"Rocky wonders why these Symols are so vicious..." said Rocky.

"Maybe they're agitated or something?" questioned the blue Lupe.

Shortly after this scuffle, Snotty, Redtooth, and Rocky came across an empty pedestal. They then realized that Cyrus and Luna had beat them to the punch.

"Dang it!" bellowed Snotty.

Also, there was an enormous Juppie Plant Beast was waiting for them...apparently it had sprouted after the duo had taken away the Leaf Stone.

"That plant sure doesn't look friendly..." thought Snotty.

Suddenly, vines grew out of the ground and blocked the way out of the cave.

"We're trapped!" screamed Rocky.

"How are we going to get out now?" questioned Redtooth.

Shortly afterwards, more vines started to sprout of the ground to stab the Villains of Darkness.

"Whoa!" exclaimed the blue Lupe, who started trying to get out of the way.

"Rocky smash puny Juppie plant!" exclaimed the caveman Mynci.

Unfortunately, for Rocky, the Juppie Plant Beast could spit acid...which it demonstrated by spewing it on his face.

"It burns!" exclaimed the caveman.

And to make matters worse, the acid got into his eyes, so he was blinded. He started swinging his club like crazy, nearly hitting Snotty and Redtooth in the process.

"Hey, watch it buddy!" demanded Snotty.

"You nearly hit us!" bellowed Redtooth.

The Giant Juppie Plant then tried to bite Rocky, who unfortunately was now close to the plant.

"Ouch!" he exclaimed.

However, due to the fact that he kept swinging his club like crazy, the Juppie Plant Beast ended up being hit on the head. It hissed at our heroes and started spewing more acid at our heroes.

"Funny...didn't Tormund face a monster just like this one when he was training to become a knight?" questioned Snotty.

"Yes...although I don't ever recall it spitting acid...perhaps it's an older plant beast? I don't know." answered Redtooth.

Finally, Rocky regained his sight, and he continued trying to crush the beast with his club. Unfortunately, it had moved its head out of reach.

"Dang nabbit!" bellowed Rocky.

Thankfully, Redtooth was able to leap on top of the Juppie Plant Beast's head, and he then started clawing into it. Due to the fact that his claws were poisonous, this did not bode well for the overgrown veggie, who started trying to shake the Lupe off.

This gave Snotty enough time to punch the Juppie Beast in the head using his elastic arms, causing it to collapse on the ground.

"Whoa!" exclaimed the blue Lupe as he fell on the cave floor.

"Did we get it?" questioned the green Blumaroo.

Snotty's question was answered when suddenly the vines blocking the way out withered away.

"I'll take that as a yes." he said.

"But where are Cyrus and Luna anyway? I don't see any sign of them!" exclaimed Snotty.

"Hmm...it seems that they're long gone...it's just as well though because I'm sick of getting mud on my paws!" replied Redtooth.

"Where could they have gone?" questioned Rocky.

_Meanwhile in Brightvale..._

As it turns out, after the destruction they had caused in Meridell, Cyrus and Luna had gone towards Brightvale to search for the Earth Crystal. According to the compass, it was somewhere in the city.

Cyrus was happy that they managed to get the Leaf Stone to unlock the temple with without a hitch. At the rate they were going, they would be able to use the six crystals to make a wish to save their homeland in no time. Of course, getting the other five stones and the other crystals would probably not be so easy, but he believed that he and Luna would be able to pull it off.

Luna on the other hand was starting to become worried. She got the strange feeling that the Neopets they had gotten in trouble would want revenge on them due to the fact they had framed them for crimes they did not commit. She had in fact noticed that there were wanted posters of them scattered throughout Meridell.

"Well, we've got the Earth Stone...now let's use it to look for the Earth Temple...according to the compass it should be somewhere in Brightvale." said Cyrus.

"Funny, I can't help but shake the feeling that we're being followed...but who exactly could be tracking us down?" replied Luna.

"Oh? Whatever makes you say that?" questioned the Scorchio.

"Just a hunch. Maybe I'm just losing my marbles." stated the Acara.

"I sure hope not." answered Cyrus.

Suddenly, they noticed that many members of the Royal Guard of Brightvale were leaving Brightvale Castle...the duo began to wonder what was going on.

"Perhaps they're looking for somebody?" questioned Luna. She in fact got the strange feeling that they were looking for the Neopets that were wanted throughout Meridell, but she decided not tell Cyrus that.

As it turns out, they had been ordered by King Hagan to capture the Villains of Darkness due to the fact that he had heard that they had been spotted in Meridell and had caused a lot of destruction.

"It looks like that way...and it appears that they're armed with medieval weapons...something tells me that whoever they're looking for is dangerous..." answered Cyrus.

"Let's hope it's not us." said Luna.

The duo eventually decided that it was not worth their time investigating the Brightvale Royal Guard's recent activities, and they resumed searching for the Earth Crystal Temple using their compass.

_Meanwhile at the Neopia Central Docks..._

Much to their horror, Bloony, Cherry, and Marvin discovered that Deluge had invaded the docks and had eaten many of the workers there. Unsurprisingly, the port was now covered with slime.

"Darn it! How do we keep missing him? It feels like he's always a step ahead of us..." questioned Bloony.

"He's really sneaky!" exclaimed Cherry.

"Well, Deluge just ate everyone here...that's for certain...it sure seems like he never runs out of Neopets to eat..." answered Marvin.

"I sure hope he didn't eat any of the Black Pawkeet..." said the Red Chia.

Suddenly, our heroes noticed that the ship was sailing into port, and they immediately smiled.

"Thank goodness!" exclaimed Bloony.

Sure enough, they saw that Garin was leading them...and curiously enough Jacques had come back from the dead as a Ghost Pirate Neopet.

"You're a ghost now? I didn't know that Neopets could return back from the dead..." questioned Cherry.

"Well, yeah...sometimes that happens whenever a Neopet meets an untimely end...personally I'm just glad that I can continue being a pirate." said the spectral pirate.

"I wonder if that's going to happen to me before this adventure is over..." murmured Bloony.

"Let's hope not. Try to be optimistic!" answered Marvin.

"So, you want to sail to Mystery Island, do you? Funny, I don't see any other sailors here..." noted Garin.

"That's because they were eaten by a horrible slime monster." said Bloony.

"What?! They were eaten?!" exclaimed Jacques.

"I know, that literal slimeball simply won't stop eating, and the more he eats, the bigger he becomes!" warned Cherry.

"That doesn't sound good at all. He's probably eating even more Neopets as we speak!" agreed Garin.

"Exactly! But that's not the worst part! He plans on eating Cult of Apocalypse members to gain massive power boosts! He already ate Professor Nyctus, his own creator! And we think that Shuriken is next!" exclaimed Cherry.

"So, to make a long story short, you're trying to stop him from eating more Neopets so that he doesn't destroy all of Neopia?" questioned Jacques.

Bloony nodded.

"I see...I guess we better start sailing as soon as possible. It's bad enough that all of Neopia was already attacked once by another monster...we certainly wouldn't want history to repeat himself." agreed Garin.

And so our heroes hopped aboard the Black Pawkeet...hopefully they would be able to get to the island before Deluge did.

But unbeknowst to our heroes, one of the pirates aboard the ship was actually a member of Willis's goons, who was in fact spying on them.

"I don't think the boss is going to be happy that the Heroes of Light are alive and well..." he thought. Immediately, he prepared to give Willis a call.

_Meanwhile at the Terror Mountain Ski Lodge..._

As it turns out, Willis was throwing a party along with his two Cybunny bodyguards, Hunny and Bunni. Curiously enough, one was a Yellow Cybunny with a blue dress while the other was a Blue Cybunny with a yellow dress.

"How I love parties...it's too bad it's not all smoothies and caviar though...the Heroes of Light seem rather determined to stop me...but seeing though I sent an army of Robo-Myncis after htem I think I should be safe from them." thought Willis.

As it turns out, his goons were making Myncis of themselves...apparently, the taste of fruit punch drove them crazy.

Suddenly, he received a message from his spy on his cell phone.

"Yes, what is it?" questioned Willis.

"The Heroes of Light have gone off to sea! And they've got the Black Pawkeet on their side!" exclaimed the spy.

"What!? Alright, everyone stop boogieing now!" demanded the Bruce.

The evil Neopets did as Willis asked, although not before looking at him with curiousity.

"This is no time to be partying! Those stupid Neopets must have destroyed my Robo-Myncis! Now I've going to have to spend a million Neopoints just so I can build new ones! And to make matters worse they've managed to persuade a bunch of pirates to help them defeat me!" exclaimed Willis.

"What should we do, boss?" questioned Hunny.

"Yeah! There's got to be a way to get rid of them!" exclaimed Bunni.

"I know what I'm going to do! I'm going to call an associate of mine to sink their ship into Davy Jones' locker! Captain Sharptooth!" bellowed the Bruce.

All of Willis's goons (including Hunny and Bunni) gasped in shock. Captain Sharptooth was one of the worst pirates in all of Neopia! Rumor has it that he was even worse than Captain Scarblade!

"You sure about this?" questioned Hunny.

"Yeah, boss! That Jetsam is absolutely vicious!" agreed Bunni.

"Of course I'm sure! Who do you think I am?" answered Willis.

Immediately, he started dialing his accomplice's cell phone number. Sure enough, a blue Jetsam wearing a pirate's hat and an eyepatch on his left eye answered.

"Ye rang?" questioned the evil pirate captain.

"Yes...I've got a job for you...I want you to sink a ship by the name of The Black Pawkeet into the bottom of the ocean...you got that? And while you're at it, feel free to maroon the passengers...that would be a sight I would love to see." answered Willis.

"Ye got it boss...wait, the Black Pawkeet? I've heard of those landlubbers! They are a disgrace to pirates everywhere! Me crew and I should have no trouble with them!" exclaimed Captain Sharptooth.

"Right...just try not to underestimate them, will you? Because I'm not going to be happy with you if you fail..." said Willis.

"Of course I won't fail! Those Goldys will never see it coming! Yarr!" answered the Jetsam.

"Very good. Just make sure that the Heroes of Light don't make it to Terror Mountain...or to wherever else they're going." stated the Bruce, who promptly hanged up.

_The Villains of Darkness are catching up to Cyrus and Luna...but unfortunately King Hagan has decided to send the royal guard to stop them from causing damage to his kingdom like they apparently did to Meridell...and of course, Officer Peanuts has armed two of his best officers with deadly weapons to bring them to justice..._

_And meanwhile...the Heroes of Light are setting out to sea...but Willis plans to stop them using a pal of his...will they be able to get to Mystery Island? Or will Captain Sharptooth and his pirates put a stop to that?_

_You'll of course, have to find out in the next chapter, because I like cliffhangers._


	11. Chapter 11: Ocean Battle

Saving Neopia II: Light and Darkness

_When we last saw the Heroes of Light...they set out to sea...unfortunately, Willis has decided to send a friend of his to sink their ship...and of course, it that happens, they won't be able to stop Deluge from devouring Shuriken..._

_Meanwhile, the Villains of Darkness are heading to Brightvale so that they can pursue Cyrus and Luna...will they be able to find the Earth Temple and beat them to the punch?_

**Chapter 11: Ocean Battle**

The Heroes of Light were out in the open sea, eagerly waiting to arrive at Mystery Island. Hopefully they would be able to get there before Deluge did so that they could stop him from eating Shuriken.

Curiously enough, the majority of Garin's crew were busy playing games with each other rather than doing pirate duties such as bilging or loading the cannons. Bloony wondered if the ship was going to sink due to the fact they were being neglectful.

"It feels funny to be working with The Black Pawkeet again...I remember during our last adventure when I helped them defeat Captain Scarblade." said Cherry.

"Ah yes...and I remember the day when we had to retreat from Roo Island using that boat King Roo gave us...I'm glad that we were able to save it from Advisor Broo..." agreed Bloony.

"I'm starting to feel a bit seasick..." informed Marvin, whose face had turned green as the color as of his fur.

"Ah yes, sea travel isn't for everyone, apparently." noted the yellow Blumaroo. "If you need to throw up, just tilt your head off the side of the boat."

The Mynci nodded, and then released from his stomach what he had eaten for lunch. Bloony's face turned slightly green himself witnessing this.

"In retrospect, maybe he shouldn't have eaten while he was onboard a ship." questioned Cherry.

"I'm afraid so! And to think The Black Pawkeet have such delicious food...then again they probably pilfered it from a fancy restaurant." pointed out Bloony.

"Garin, another ship is coming!" exclaimed Jacques.

"Is it another pirate ship?" questioned Garin.

"Let me check!" he exclaimed.

Jacques peered into his telescope, and realized that the ship rapidly approaching them was not only very large, but was armed with many different cannons...and of course, they had a black flag with a skull on it.

"Garin, we're in trouble! It is another pirate ship! And it's huge! Not to mention the fact that it has many different cannons..." warned Jacques.

"What! That's no good! Sail away!" exclaimed Garin.

The crew of the Black Pawkeet did as they were required, but unfortunately the pirate ship was too fast, and before long it had caught up to them.

"Darn it! Why did it have to have so many sails?" questioned Bloony.

"Funny, it looks more like a cruise ship than a pirate ship, if you ask me. Mainly because it's so enormous!" agreed Cherry.

"What are we going to do? There's no way we can beat this thing if it starts shooting cannonballs at us! We'll end up sinking for sure!" asked Marvin.

Suddenly, several grappling hooks appeared and latched themselves onto the Black Pawkeet. Shortly afterwards, Captain Sharptooth and his crew came onboard.

"Who the heck are you guys?! I haven't ever seen your ship sail the open seas before..." inquired Garin.

"Oh us? Well, me name is Captain Sharktooth, you see. And me crew here is known as the Twisted Water Faerie..." explained the pirate captain.

"What do you want from us?!" asked Bloony.

"Simple! We're here to sink your ship into the depths of the ocean...I would encourage ye to surrender or ye will be going down with it!" Captain Sharktooth continued.

"Not our ship! We spent ages building it! And we spent ages using it to pilfer treasure, too! Anything but this!" yelled Jacques.

"Exactly! That's why it's going to be so satisfying to send it to Davy Jones' locker! Hahahahaha!" he laughed.

"Not if we have anything to say about it, you barnacle!" exclaimed Garin.

"Oh? Yer going to challenge me? I'd like to see you try...just like the other ships me crew and I have sunk in the past..." he taunted.

Shortly afterwards, a massive swordfight broke out between the two crews.

Fortunately for Bloony, Garin had given him a sword as a present when he had boarded the Black Pawkeet, so he was able to fight back against the pirates.

"So, you want to sink our ship, huh? Well, you don't know who you're dealing with!" he bellowed.

Cherry and Marvin were also fighting the pirates...due to the fact that the red Chia had joined the Black Pawkeet before, she was doing pretty well against them. On the other hand, Marvin was having a hard time avoiding their swords.

"Go pick on someone your own size, you sea urchins!" demanded Cherry.

"Help me, Cherry! These pirates have me outnumbered!" screamed Marvin.

Cherry simply shrugged, and knocked the pirates that were hassling the Mynci off the side of the ship.

"That'll teach them to mess with my friends!" she thought.

Meanwhile, Garin was threatening Captain Sharktooth with his sword.

"Walk the plank, why don't you? I'm sick of other other pirates always attacking my ship!" he demanded.

Captain Sharktooth responded by pulling out a massive blade that made Garin's rapier seem as small as a Miamouse. And to make matters worse it was also made out of maractite.

"Um...is it too late to discuss parley?" questioned Garin, realizing that he was heavily outmatched.

"Only if ye want to join me crew." answered the Jetsam.

"Um..." the Usul thought.

With one swipe of his oversized blade, Captain Sharktooth snapped Garin's sword in two. His jaw dropped in shock.

"Um, Jacques, a little help here?" he asked.

"I'm coming, Garin! I'll be in there in just a sec-" Jacques exclaimed.

Unfortunately for the ghost Kyrii, he was knocked off his feet when suddenly he was struck by...a fish tail?

Jacques looked up, and discovered that one of the pirates was a Water Faerie wearing a bandana.

"Um, hi?" he asked.

"Now I know why Captain Sharptooth calls his ship the Twisted Water Faerie." thought Garin.

"Me name is Pearl, in case ye were wondering, I'm Captain Sharptooth's first mate." explained the Water Faerie.

"First mate?" questioned Jacques.

Pearl then pulled out two swords, and started stabbing the Kyrii repeatedly in rapid succession.

"Ow! Ouch! Ooh! Oof! Eek!" bellowed the spectral Kyrii.

Unfortunately, this proved to be too much for him, and he eventually passed out.

"Jacques!" exclaimed Garin.

"Yer next." answered Captain Sharptooth.

Pearl then followed up by trapping the Usul captain in a bubble.

"Let me out of here!" demanded Garin.

"Whatever ye say." answered Captain Sharptooth.

Raising his sword high above his head, the Jetsam then swung it downwards and sliced into the bubble, causing it to explode violently.

"Gah!" exclaimed Garin.

Suddenly, Pawkeets began appearing around the unfortunate Usul's head.

"Where did you all come from?" questioned Garin.

"Well, me hearty, I think that we've played around with these landlubbers long enough. Ready to sink the ship?" asked Captain Sharptooth.

"Aye aye captain!" answered Pearl.

The crew of The Twisted Faerie then swam back to their ship. Bloony wondered if they were retreating, which considering the fact they had taken out the captain of the first mate of the ship was rather unusual.

Suddenly, the ship opened fire on The Black Pawkeet, causing severe damage to the hull.

"What the-"

Cherry was cut off when suddenly the ship began to sink. Unsurprisingly, this caused most of Garin's crew to begin to panic.

"Calm down everyone! There's got to be a way out of this!" demanded Bloony.

All the commotion woke up Jacques, despite the fact that he had taken a beating a few minutes earlier.

"What's going on? Why is everyone screaming?" he asked.

Fortunately for our heroes, Neopets were capable of floating, and they were able to swim towards a small nearby archipelago. Unfortunately for our heroes, there were no other ships in sight.

Captain Sharptooth laughed at the Heroes of Light's misfortune. Apparently the Black Pawkeet did not have any lifeboats.

"It looks like a job well done." he thought. "I'd like to see them to try to get off that island...it's in the middle of nowhere!"

He and his crew then decided to abandon the crew of the Black Pawkeet so that he could report back to his colleague. Maybe if they were lucky, Willis would give them a treasure map so that they could go Dubloon hunting.

"Curse you, Captain Sharptooth!" exclaimed Cherry.

"As much fun as it would to yell bad things about that horrible pirate captain, in case you haven't noticed Cherry, we're marooned!" bellowed Bloony.

"Maybe we should light a fire? That way someone might notice us!" questioned Jacques.

"Good idea Jacques, but I don't see anything we can use to light one with!" pointed out Garin.

"Actually, I could probably just light a fire using one of my inventions." stated Marvin.

Bloony sweatdropped. Why did Marvin always have so many inventions? It was a question he asked himself time and time again.

Suddenly, they heard the sound of someone approaching. Were they not the only ones stranded?

"Now who could that be?" asked the yellow Blumaroo.

"Maybe it's Deluge?" questioned Cherry.

"I don't think so...there isn't any slime anywhere." pointed out Marvin.

Suddenly, they noticed that a spear was being tossed at them.

"Whoa!" exclaimed Bloony, ducking underneath it.

"Who's throwing those at us?" asked Garin.

"Nobody friendly, that's for sure." answered Jacques.

Suddenly, our heroes discovered that they were surrounded by the local natives...a bunch of Coconut Jubjubs.

"It seems that this island isn't uninhabited..." thought Bloony.

Immediately, the Coconut Jubjubs trapped our heroes underneath a net.

"We're trapped!" bellowed Cherry.

The Jubjubs then dragged our heroes towards their village, where they would be paying their leader Pango Pango a visit.

"This... is not my day." thought Bloony.

_Meanwhile in Brightvale..._

"So, you think this is where Cyrus and Luna went?" questioned Snotty.

"Maybe...this is likely where the Earth Temple they're searching for is located." pointed out Redtooth.

"Um...guys..." murmured Rocky.

"What?" questioned the green Blumaroo.

"It's the Villains of Darkness! Take them to the dungeon!" bellowed one of the Brightvale Royal Guard.

"Oh brother! First a bunch of farmers, and now this!" exclaimed Redtooth.

Snotty tried to punch one the Royal Guard in the face, but unfortunately he blocked his fists with his shield.

"Grrr...these royal guards are annoying..." he thought.

The Royal Guards then started slashing our anti-heroes with their swords.

However, they quickly started fighting back. Redtooth bit one of the guards in the leg, causing him to fall down on his back. He then took the opportunity to pounce on top of him and claw into his face. Due to the venom, the unfortunate guard lost consciousness.

Following suit, Rocky started plowing through the guards like dominoes. Unfortunately for them, not only their shields could protect them from the aggressive caveman.

"How'd he get so strong?" wondered one of the guards.

Suddenly, one of the guards let out a whistle. Apparently the Brightvale guards stationed at the castle heard him, because they started pulling out crossbows and arming their catapults.

Shortly afterwards, the Villains of Darkness found themselves being pelted by rocks from nearby catapults. Other guards started shooting at them with arrows.

"What's going on?" questioned Snotty, trying to avoid the multiple projectiles.

"It seems that they've given up on attacking us up close and are now trying to fight us from a distance..." pointed out Redtooth.

Unfortunately for the anti-heroes, there wasn't anything they could use to take cover.

"Darn, they've planned this surprisingly well." said Snotty.

"Rocky can toss things too!" exclaimed Rocky.

Suddenly, Rocky started returning the rocks flung from the catapults to their senders using his massive strength...suffice to say, this caused a lot of damage to not only the wooden devices, but to the castle itself.

"King Hagan isn't going to be too happy about this when he finds out that we've been wrecking his castle..." noted Redtooth.

The caveman Mynci kept on using this tactic, and eventually, the guards stopped firing altogether.

"At least he's more forgiving than his brother was...hey look! I think the guards are retreating!" pointed out Snotty.

As the green Blumaroo pointed out, the guards had decided that the Villains of Darkness were simply too strong and to tell King Hagan the bad news.

"I guess we're home free then!" exclaimed Redtooth.

Suddenly, a stream of flame was sent towards them.

"What the-" exclaimed Rocky.

To make a long story short, the Villains of Darkness ended up being covered in ash. And they got some first-degree burns, too.

"Ow! Who the heck fired that? Does Brightvale have a few mages that shoot fireballs or something?" inquired Redtooth.

"Look over there!" exclaimed Snotty.

As it turns out, it was the Quiggle Brothers, who were standing on top of a nearby hill.

"Officer Peanuts sent us to arrest you!" bellowed Wart.

"You're going away for a long time!" continued Gorf.

"Sheesh...it seems that fat Elephante hasn't given up even after we decimated his police force...personally I was expecting him to eat donuts and drink coffee all day rather than actually do his job." said the green Blumaroo.

"Be careful guys, they're armed with weapons from the Hidden Tower!" exclaimed Redtooth.

"Big deal. Rocky will smash puny Quiggles with club." answered Rocky.

Suddenly, Gorf pulled out his Ultra Bubble Gun and started shooting bubbles at our heroes at a rapid pace.

"Ow! Who would have thought that being hit by bubbles could be so painful?" questioned Redtooth.

"Ah yes...Queen Fyora came up with some rather crazy yet very effective weapons..." agreed Snotty.

"They're shooting at us again!" bellowed Rocky.

As it turns out, Wart was once again preparing to roast our anti-heroes with his Portable Kiln.

However, Snotty would have none of that, and punched the red Quiggle in the face.

"Ouch!" the police officer exclaimed.

This caused Wart to drop the Portable Kiln on his brother's feet. Gorf then started hopping around in pain.

"Hot hot hot!" bellowed Gorf.

Wart did his best to get his brother to stop panicking.

"Calm down brother! We can still do this!" exclaimed the red Quiggle.

"Say, where did the Villains of Darkness go?" asked the green Quiggle.

Their question was answered when suddenly Redtooth and Rocky knocked the two police officers down the hill.

"Aargh!" they both exclaimed as they took the tumble.

Realizing that they were losing, the two Quiggles became desperate. They decided it would best if they both attacked the Villains of Darkness at once.

"Are you ready, brother?" asked Wart.

"You've got it, big bro!" answered Gorf.

Charging both their weapons, Wart and Gorf unleashed a desperation attack on the Villains of Darkness. Unfortunately for the anti-heroes, it sent them flying.

"Whoa!" they all exclaimed.

"Yes! We did it! I guess we should call Officer Peanuts the good news..." informed Wart.

"Um, brother..." pointed out Gorf.

"What?" asked the red Quiggle.

Fortunately for the Villains of Darkness, they landed right on top of the Quiggle Brothers.

"Aaugh!" they both exclaimed.

And to make matters worse, their weapons were now broken. Weapons that Officer Peanuts had likely spent millions of Neopoints on.

"No!" exclaimed Wart.

"So much for the authorities." taunted Snotty.

"This isn't over, Villains of Darkness! One of these days you're going to get what's coming to you!" bellowed Wart.

"Yeah! You'll end up in a maximum security prison some day, just wait and see!" agreed Gorf.

The two Quiggles then hopped away.

"You think we should go after them?" questioned Redtooth.

"Rocky doesn't think they're worth it." disagreed Rocky.

"Besides, it seems to me that the only threatening member of the bunch is Officer Peanuts." pointed out Snotty.

"Let's just hope that he doesn't try chasing after us again..." agreed the blue Lupe.

Suddenly, the Villains of Darkness remembered that they should start searching for the Earth Temple.

"Oh, right. How could we have forgotten about getting revenge on Cyrus and Luna?" questioned Snotty.

"Well, for some strange reason, we've had to fight a lot of things on the way there. I'm starting to think all of Neopia is against us nowadays..." pointed out Redtooth.

"Maybe we shouldn't have become criminals in the first place!" exclaimed Rocky.

Snotty sweatdropped.

"Let's just go to the stinking temple." demanded the green Blumaroo.

_Meanwhile outside the Earth Temple..._

At the temple entrance, a green Ixi and a yellow Lupe were standing guard trying to keep other Neopets out.

"I'm tired...can I go home?" asked the Ixi.

"King Hagan assigned us to guard this temple, so no." answered the yellow Lupe.

"Why are we guarding this temple, anyway?" asked the curious Ixi.

"King Hagan said that there was something valuable inside it and that bad things would happen if it was stolen." answerered the Lupe.

"Fine fine fine...but I need to use the restroom." said the Ixi.

The Guard Lupe promptly facepalmed.

Suddenly, they noticed that two Neopets were approaching.

"Um, listen. I'm afraid you can't just waltz in here. King Hagan ordered us not to let anyone in the temple under any circumstances!" pointed out the Guard Lupe.

"Yeah! And you won't be able to enter without the Leaf Stone in Meridell!" continued the Guard Ixi.

The Guard Lupe groaned.

Suddenly, Cyrus shot a fireball towards the Guard Ixi. He was promptly set on fire.

"Aah! Someone put me out!" demanded the Ixi.

"Stop, drop, and roll!" ordered the Lupe.

Luna then followed by using a spell to freeze the Guard Lupe solid.

"I guess now we can enter without any more interference." stated Cyrus.

"Good...I want to do this quickly, it feels like this journey is going to take forever." agreed Luna.

The two Neopets entered the temple and went towards the nearby pedestal.. Cyrus placed the Leaf Stone inside and a doorway promptly opened.

"Well, now to grab the Earth Crystal and go." said the orange Scorchio.

_It looks like Cyrus and Luna are about to grab the Earth Crystal...but can the Villains of Darkness stop them in time?_

_Meanwhile, the Heroes of Light have been abducted by the local Coconut Jubjubs...what plans do they have in store with them? And will they be able to break free?_

_Well, you'll have to wait for the next chapter to find out...which should hopefully be very soon._


	12. Chapter 12: The Earth Temple

Saving Neopia II: Light and Darkness

_As fun as it would be to leave you on a cliffhanger...I figured it'd be a good idea to publish a new chapter and not make you wait for too long...so here comes my next chapter._

_Unsurprisingly, you'll get to find out what happened to the Heroes of Light...and you'll get to see the Villains of Darkness try to stop Cyrus and Luna..._

**Chapter 12: The Earth Temple**

The natives took the Heroes of Light to what appeared to be their village. Immediately, Bloony got a bad feeling what they were planning.

"This can't be good..." he thought.

They then noticed that standing at the center of their village was none other than Mumbo Pango himself...the Heroes of Light immediately noticed that he towered above them...in fact, he was about as big as their sunken boat.

"Here is your sacrifice, our lord!" exclaimed the Coconut Jubjubs.

"Sacrifice?!" exclaimed Cherry.

"And here we thought being marooned was such a problem..." stated Marvin.

"Are we going to die?" asked Garin.

Suddenly, the Usul Pirate got an idea.

"Maybe we can cut our way through this net using our Maractite Swords..." pointed out the Usul.

"But weren't they broken during our scuffle with Captain Sharptooth?" questioned Jacques.

"That doesn't mean that we can't use them to cut our way through these ropes..." continued Garin.

"I hope you're right." answered the ghost Kyrii.

"We are not worthy! We are not worthy!" exclaimed the Coconut Jubjubs.

While the Coconut Jubjubs were busy bowing to Mumbo Pango, Garin and Jacques cut themselves free of the net. They then proceeded to cut the Heroes of Light free as well.

"Wait, where is your crew?" questioned Bloony.

As it turns out, they were locked in cages nearby.

"That's no good." stated Cherry.

Garin and Jacques then went to free the crew of the Black Pawkeet from their cages...unfortunately, this caused the Coconut Jubjubs to notice that they were escaping.

"Get them!" they exclaimed.

Shortly afterwards, the Heroes of Light and the crew of the Black Pawkeet found themselves fighting the demented natives...who to make a long story short wanted to jab them with their spears.

"Sheesh...who would have thought that Jubjubs could be so vicious?" thought Marvin.

"I know Marvin, I know." agreed Bloony.

Suddenly, one of the Coconut Jubjubs pulled out a voodoo doll.

"Funny, that doll looks just like me..." spoke the green Mynci.

"Um, Marvin, I don't think that's a doll that they're going to play with..." warned Garin.

The Jubjub then started poking it with a needle, causing Marvin pain.

"Ow! Ouch! Quit it!" he exclaimed.

"Stop playing with that!" yelled Cherry.

Cherry punched the Coconut Jubjub in the face, causing him to let go of the voodoo doll. Unfortunately, it fell into the nearby campfire.

"Ouch! Hot hot hot hot!" exclaimed Marvin, who was now on fire.

Bloony facepalmed and went to stamp the flames out. This promptly extinguished the unfortunate Mynci.

"Thanks...ugh, I sure hope that they don't have more of those..." said the Mynci.

Of course, as soon as the green Mynci said so...more of the Coconut Jubjubs pulled out voodoo dolls resembling Bloony, Cherry, Garin, and Jacques.

"How are they even making those anyway?!" exclaimed Cherry.

"I don't know...Coconut Jubjubs are crazy." answered Jacques.

Thankfully, it wasn't difficult to knock the voodoo dolls out of the angry natives' hands...although they did get poked a few times.

"Stupid voodoo dolls..." muttered Bloony.

However, by then, Mumbo Pango himself had noticed them.

"Oh boy..." said Garin.

Suddenly, he jumped into the air and created a shockwave, sending our heroes flying.

"Whoa!" the Heroes of Light exclaimed.

Thankfully, they were able to get to their feet. However, they began to wonder how they were supposed to defeat the god the Coconut Jubjubs had been worshipping for who knows how long.

"Hmm..." thought Bloony.

Suddenly, the Heroes of Light and the Black Pawkeet crew noticed that the natives were still bowing down to Mumbo Pango. This made Cherry rather annoyed.

"Cut that out! You shouldn't be bowing down to him! Mumbo Pango is freaking evil!" exclaimed the Chia, punching a Jubjub in the face and knocking them out cold.

Suddenly, Mumbo Pango winced, much to Bloony's surprise. He began to become curious.

"Maybe he gets his strength from the Coconut Jubjubs praying to him? That would explain why they always bow down whenever he's around..." he thought.

"Cherry! Keep attacking the natives!" exclaimed Bloony.

Cherry shrugged and started attacking more of the natives. Unfortunately, this made Mumbo Pango angry, and he stomped her with his giant foot and gave her a concussion.

"Look at all the pretty stars..." she said.

Suddenly, meteors began to fall out of the sky.

"Watch out!" bellowed Bloony.

The Black Pawkeet and the Heroes of Light scrambled to avoid the meteors, which set fire to much of the jungle.

"I'm starting to wonder if this island is even going to be left standing once this battle is over." stated Garin.

"Those meteors sure look destructive." agreed Jacques.

Marvin pulled out his weapons and shot more of the Coconut Jubjubs with his lasers. Mumbo Pango once again got angry, this time making lightning fall from the sky.

"How can he do that? It's not even raining!" exclaimed the green Mynci.

Suddenly, one of the lightning bolts struck Marvin, briefly causing his skeleton to become visible.

"Good grief, that was creepy." thought Bloony.

He then fell on the floor next to Cherry. Upset that his friends were getting hurt, he got angry.

"You've forced my hand." he stated.

The yellow Blumaroo used his telekinetic powers to toss the Coconut Jubjubs into Mumbo Pango, causing him to become dizzy.

Garin and Jacques took the opportunity to defeat the last few Jubjubs...causing the god to collapse to the floor.

"Huh...I guess you can't really be a god unless people worship you...then again what do I know about them?" thought Bloony.

_A few minutes later..._

After nursing Cherry and Marvin, our heroes started asking how they were going to get off the island.

"You think we could swim to Mystery Island?" questioned Cherry.

"I don't think that's a good idea, Cherry. For all we know, Captain Sharptooth could still be out there...and there's a lot of nasty things in the water...ever heard of the Slug Beast? Or The Drenched?" pointed out Bloony.

"Well, you've got a point there. Maybe I could build a machine to get us off the island?" asked Marvin.

"Good idea...but I don't think there's much you could use..." disagreed the yellow Blumaroo.

"Hmm..." thought Cherry.

Suddenly, they heard rustling, and out popped several island natives.

"Not again! It's bad enough that they tried to sacrifice us to their god the first time!" exclaimed Bloony.

But curiously enough, they didn't want to pick a fight with them. They instead started bowing down to them, much like they had bowed down to Mumbo Pango earlier.

"Maybe they think we're gods now that we defeated Mumbo Pango?" questioned Marvin.

"Possibly..." agreed Garin.

Fortunately for our heroes, the Coconut Jubjubs would now do what they said. In their case, it was to repair their ship.

"Do any of you see Captain Sharptooth?" inquired Cherry.

"No...I think he's gone." answered Jacques.

"Good...I don't want to encounter him again after what he did to our ship..." spoke Garin.

After thanking the Coconut Jubjubs for repairing their ship and for not trying to sacrifice them again, the Heroes of Light resumed sailing towards Mystery Island.

"I just hope that we got there before Deluge did..." muttered Bloony. "That pirate captain and that so-called god slowed us down..."

_Meanwhile at Brightvale..._

"So this is the Earth Temple, huh?" Snotty questioned. "To think that it was just lying out in the middle of Brightvale...how come nobody has noticed it before?

"Well, it was on the outskirts of town...I guess people don't leave Brightvale often..." pointed out Redtooth.

"Uh-oh! Someone already entered!" exclaimed Rocky.

As it turns out, the entrance to the Earth Temple was already opened.

"Darn it! I was hoping that we would get there before those two spellcasters did!" bellowed the green Blumaroo.

"No such luck." agreed Redtooth.

The Villains of Darkness shrugged, and decided to go into the temple and see if they could catch up with Cyrus and Luna.

Unfortunately, the guardians of the temple would not make life easy for them. Inside the temple were a bunch of golems...ranging from ones made from sand to ones made out of rock.

"Sheesh...this starting to remind of the time I played Neoquest..." murmured Snotty.

Suddenly, one of the sand golems brushed sand in the green Blumaroo's eyes.

"My eyes!" he exclaimed.

Thankfully, Redtooth used a tissue to wipe the sand out of the green Blumaroo's eyes.

"Thanks. It's good to see you're a neat freak like always." stated Snotty.

"You've played Neoquest before?" questioned Redtooth.

"Yes...and there were a bunch of different golems...including ones that were made out of crystal, curiously enough. Personally I wonder who would create a golem that would shatter on contact with a blunt weapon..." the green Blumaroo pointed out.

Shortly after he said that, a crystal golem hurled a chunk of crystal, which Snotty promptly ducked over.

"Well, speak of Dr. Sloth." he murmured.

"Funny, I played Neopets: The Darkest Faerie...for some strange reason there was a Juppie Plant just like the one that we fought in the Symol Hole..." pointed out Redtooth.

"Say, where's Rocky anyway?" questioned Snotty.

As it turns out, Rocky was smashing the golems using his club...some of them tried to fight back against him, but he simply turned himself into stone and shrugged them off.

"Rocky smash puny golems!" exclaimed Rocky.

"Funny, I forgot he could do that..." stated the green Blumaroo.

"Ah yes...we gained a bunch of crazy powers using that device Othella made...although we haven't really used those powers up until now..." Redtooth pointed out.

"Well, we didn't really do that much fighting until we became anti-heroes..." answered Snotty.

After Rocky had taken down the golems...the Villains of Darkness entered the next room...which for some strange reason was a large tunnel.

"Funny, I don't see any monsters here...why is this room empty?" pointed out Snotty.

"Be careful guys...just because this room isn't filled with golems doesn't mean it's unguarded..." warned Redtooth.

Unfortunately for the two Villains of Darkness members, Rocky threw caution to the wind and happily ran down the tunnel.

He ended up triggering a booby trap...which in this case was a giant boulder.

"Strange, this reminds me of an Idaho James movie..." thought Snotty.

"Run!" exclaimed Redtooth.

After narrowly escaping the ridiculously large boulder, Snotty and Redtooth decided to yell at Rocky for endangering their lives.

"What in Fyora's name were you thinking?! Did you really think that you could just run down the tunnel without triggering a trap?" exclaimed Snotty.

"Rocky sorry! Rocky just wanted to get to Cyrus and Luna before they got Earth Crystal." apologized the caveman Mynci.

"Well, you do actually make a pretty good point about getting through this place quickly...but that doesn't mean we can just run around the temple with our eyes closed...in case you haven't noticed, this place is dangerous." answered Redtooth.

"Who designed this temple anyway?" questioned Rocky.

Snotty and Redtooth simply shrugged.

In the next room there was a Sand Grundo.

"Wasn't this guy in Neoquest II?" inquired Snotty.

"Yeah, it's really weird." pointed out Redtooth. "Good thing he wasn't very hard to beat..."

Unfortunately for Rocky, his club simply went through the Grundo.

"Dang nabbit!" he exclaimed.

The Sand Grundo then hardened itself and sent the Mynci flying.

"Whoa!" he bellowed.

"Darn it! How are we going to beat this guy if Rocky can't hurt him? He's our star player here!" exclaimed Redtooth.

Suddenly, Snotty remembered that he still had his old cards and dice from when he first battled the Heroes of Light.

He reached into his bag and pulled out his slot machine.

"Funny, I haven't seen you use those in a while." Redtooth pointed out.

"That's because I figured they weren't worth it considering the fact I never really had any luck using the Heroes of Light...but maybe I can use it to take out this Grundo." suggested Snotty.

Suddenly, the Sand Grundo kicked sand into Redtooth's fur. Immediately he panicked and started running around, scratching the alien in the process.

This caused the toxins in his claws to set in...as the Grundo looked like it was rather woozy.

"I don't get it...why wasn't Rocky able to crush it with his club but you were able to poison it?" questioned Snotty.

"Well, it was still a Neopet even if it was made of sand...so maybe it has organs like we do?" suggested Redtooth.

"I don't think we should question something that we like anyway...besides, I think now's my chance." answered the Blumaroo.

Pulling the lever on his slot machine, he ended up with three water droplets.

"Well, I guess my luck has turned now that I've decided to quit being so evil for a change." Snotty muttered.

Immediately a tidal wave swept towards the Sand Grundo...due to the fact it was still dizzy from Redtooth's venom, he did not notice it until it was too late...and because he was made out of sand, he ended up being washed away.

"Jackpot!" exclaimed the green Blumaroo.

"Let's hope the next room is where the crystal is stored..." Redtooth answered.

Fortunately for the trio, the next room was where the Earth Crystal was stored, as the blue Lupe said. Unfortunately for the trio, Cyrus and Luna were already there, and they had snatched the crystal.

"How'd you guys get here without setting off the booby trap and fighting the monsters?" questioned Snotty.

"Er, how did we, Luna?" asked Cyrus.

Luna simply shrugged. "I guess the monsters simply didn't want to pick a fight with us...our homeland sent us for the mission because they thought we were tough..."

Rocky lunged towards Luna, but unfortunately she blasted him away with a blast of ice.

"Cold cold cold cold!" he exclaimed.

Redtooth also tried to pounce on Cyrus, but he set him on fire.

"Hot hot hot hot!" he screamed.

"Now why do you want to pick a fight with us?" inquired the orange Scorchio.

"Well, you almost got us arrested for life...and you terrorized a lot of people in Meridell..." pointed out Snotty.

"Oh right that...well I assure you, that what we did was for the greater good." answered the blue Acara.

"Well, we're not going to let you kick any more Puppyblews simply so that you can make a wish!" exclaimed Redtooth.

"Oh...so you're saying that you're going to try to stop us from getting the crystals then...I guess we're going to have to do something about that." answered Cyrus. "Luna, if you please..."

Luna pulled out a spellbook and started casting a spell on a nearby statue that for some strange reason resembled King Hagan...after a few seconds, it suddenly started to move. It then stared at her, waiting for a command.

"Send these three to the Neopian Hospital, will you? We've got a schedule to keep here..." ordered the Acara.

The statue nodded, and let out a roar. The Villains of Darkness became more than slightly concerned.

"Hopefully this will discourage you from pursuing us..." muttered Cyrus as he and Luna teleported out of the temple.

The statue then continued towards the anti-heroes. They noticed that in its hands was a giant hammer.

"Well, it looks like we might be in trouble." answered Snotty.

The animated sculpture then drove its hammer into the ground, creating a shockwave where it landed.

"Whoa!" he exclaimed.

Redtooth tried clawing into the statue, but unfortunately due to the fact that it was made out of stone it wasn't too effective, and only caused a few scratch marks to appear on the sculpture. And since it was magically animated instead of being a living being like the Sand Grundo, poison didn't harm it.

"Darn it! Why does this thing have to be made out of granite? Why can't it be made out of paper or something?!" bellowed Redtooth.

The statue then bashed the blue Lupe on the head with his hammer, knocking him out cold.

"Redtooth!" exclaimed Snotty.

Unfortunately for the statue, this made the green Blumaroo rather angry. He used its elastic fists to punch the giant...causing it to fall down on the ground. Although his fists were bruised trying to do so, this seemed to have been effective, as a few cracks began to appear on the statue as it fell.

However, this also made the statue angry, and it started hurling rocks at Snotty.

"Whoa!" he exclaimed, ducking underneath them.

Snotty then tried using his slot machine as before, but unfortunately the statue smashed it using his hammer.

"Gosh darn it!" he exclaimed.

Rocky as it turns out had climbed onto the statue and was smashing it with his club, but even this didn't seem to be quite enough for the job. The sculpture quickly noticed what he was doing and grabbed him off his back...it then promptly tossed him around the room, causing him to literally bounce off the walls in a cartoonish fashion.

"Ow! Ouch! Ooh! Eek!" exclaimed the Mynci.

Thankfully, he wasn't knocked out like Redtooth was, but he nonetheless began to feel lightheaded.

"Why are there three of you, Snotty?" inquired Rocky.

Snotty facepalmed. At this point he was running out of options. Attacking the statue head on wasn't proving to be very helpful. Surely there had to be another way to take it down.

Suddenly, he noticed the hammer in its hands, and he got an idea.

Using his elastic arms, he started trying to yank it away from the giant sculpture. Unsuprisingly, it started to yank on the hammer as well to prevent Snotty from stealing it.

"Rocky! Attack its arms!" exclaimed the green Blumaroo.

The caveman Mynci did as he was told, causing the statue to let go of the hammer. Snotty then gave the hammer to Rocky.

"Now where should Rocky hammer it?" he thought.

He then noticed the crown on top of the statue's head, which had a green gem on it. Perhaps that was a weak point?

"Rocky, attack its crown!" exclaimed the Blumaroo.

Rocky did as he was asked. Once more he climbed onto the statue, this time using the hammer to smash into the gem on top of the statue's head.

This worked surprisingly well. Suddenly, even more cracks began to appear on the enormous sculpture...until suddenly it collapsed into rubble, causing Rocky to fall in the process.

"Whoa!" he exclaimed.

Thankfully, he was unharmed...Snotty then rolled his magical dice...which curiously enough caused a scorchstone to fall on top of Redtooth.

"Did you defeat that giant statue?" he asked.

"Yes, we did...I have to admit, Rocky's proved to be useful to us lately..." stated Snotty. "Well, aside from the fact that he triggered that enormous boulder..."

"Rocky already apologized! Sheesh!" exclaimed the caveman Mynci.

"It's too bad that we weren't able to stop Cyrus and Luna from making off with the Earth Crystal...maybe we'll have better luck in the future?" questioned Redtooth.

"Maybe...we might not be able to thwart stage one though...then again, what really matters is that we stop them from hurting other Neopets...of course, technically that was what we used to do all the time...what with our thefts and such." answered Snotty.

"Where do you think they're headed next?" asked Rocky.

"I don't know. I guess for now we should head to our old base at Neopia Central...seeing though we haven't been there for so long I figured the police probably wouldn't suspect we'd head there again." suggested the green Blumaroo.

Redtooth and Rocky simply shrugged and decided to do what their leader said...

_Meanwhile at an evil lair..._

A green Blumaroo wearing a green dress and lipstick was sitting on a chair, watching TV. Curiously enough, there wasn't anything about the Villains of Darkness on the news, aside from the fact that one police officer was determined to bring them to justice no matter what.

Turning off the TV, she decided to go to her computer and check on her son Snotty. Typing in a few words, she checked to see what he had been doing lately. She was already aware that her son had found enemies in the form of the Heroes of Light, and wanted to see if he had actually defeated her.

But much to her anger, not only had he failed to defeat them after a year had passed, but she discovered that he had not committed any crimes recently. In fact, he was trying to stop two other Neopets from causing havoc and destruction wherever they went.

"What?! My son has turned away from the dark side?! How dare he! I'll have to find him and teach him a lesson...and while I'm at it I guess I'll have to deal with his little friends the Heroes of Light myself since he's been so bad at being evil lately..." she said.

Typing a few more words to activate a GPS system, she discovered that her son was currently at his old lair, which he had used prior to being arrested for the second time.

She then turned to her henchman Dennis, a Speckled Kacheek who as it turns out was mopping up her lair using a mop.

"Er, do you want me for something, my mistress?" he asked.

"Actually yes. I want you to drive me towards my son's hideout. I have a few words to say to him..." she inquired.

"Like...what?" asked Dennis.

"Let's just say that he's been a good boy...and one way or another he's going to be a bad boy again..." answered Snotty's Mother.

"I see..." answered the Kacheek. "Don't you think you're being a bit hard on the boy? He probably feels guilty after all the evil things he's done..."

"Don't talk back to me! Now drive me over to his house! Now!" exclaimed the matriach Blumaroo.

"Right right! Of course!" exclaimed Dennis.

Stepping into a vehicle along with his mistress, Dennis began to drive Snotty's Mother towards the Villains of Darkness.

"So, he wants to be a hero, huh? Not if I have anything to say about it..." she stated.

_Well, for some strange reason, the Heroes of Light have managed to defeat a god...at least, the Coconut Jubjubs believe he's a god...of course, if he was it wouldn't really explain why he has a simple Flotsam Chef feed him every five minutes...if he really is a god he probably wouldn't have to eat that much..._

_And it seems that we now know why Snotty is evil...his mother had made him act that way...and now she's going to pay him a visit now that he's decided not to be a villain anymore...are the Villains of Darkness going to start committing evil again? Or will they be able to resist?_

_You'll have to find out in the thirteenth chapter...which suffice to say is going to prove to be rather unlucky for the Villains of Darkness...and to an extent the Heroes of Light...you'll see why soon..._


	13. Chapter 13: Reuniting

Saving Neopia II: Light And Darkness

_Well, it's time to see what's going to happen to the Villains of Darkness...and to see if the Heroes of Light have reached Mystery Island before Deluge has...that's what you want to know, right?_

_Also, for some strange reason, I've decided to reveal the last names of my main characters in this chapter along with Snotty's Mother's actual name...you know, so I don't always have to refer to her as that little nickname..._

**Chapter 13: Reuniting**

The Villains of Darkness were rather depressed, to say the very least. They had no idea where Cyrus and Luna were going, and the Neopian Times wasn't telling them anything useful...at least, not in today's issue.

Fortunately for the Villains of Darkness, the shack they used for a hideout had not fallen apart decide the fact that they hadn't used it in a long time. Personally they were all very curious about this fact, but they decided not to look a gift Uni in the mouth.

"How are we going to track those two jerks down now? We can't go after them if we don't even know where they're headed." wondered Snotty.

"Ah yes...this is a real road block, isn't it? I guess we're just out of luck. It's a shame, I would have liked to get even with Cyrus and Luna." agreed Redtooth.

"And to think that the police tried to arrest us while we were pursuing them...Rocky's starting to wonder if our entire journey has been a waste of time." Rocky complained.

Suddenly, the Villains of Darkness heard a doorbell ringing. They immediately began to wonder who was at their doorstep. Had one of them asked for something online? Snotty hadn't recalled ordering anything a few days ago.

"Our hideout has a doorbell? I didn't know that. Why did we even install one anyway? It's not like we ever invite someone to pay us a visit. Since you know, we're a bunch of criminals." inquired Redtooth.

"About that...you see, I decided to install one in case another criminal paid us a visit. You never know when another evildoer might show up." Snotty said.

"Why exactly would you want another criminal to pay us a visit?" inquired Redtooth, raising an eyebrow.

"To get someone else to join our cause, I guess. The more help we have, the better I say." explained Snotty.

"You're always recruiting, aren't you?" asked Rocky.

"I suppose we are Rocky...we never seem to be able to outnumber the Heroes of Light though...I wonder why?" answered Snotty.

"Probably just our bad luck, I guess. But what do I know? You're the brains of our group." replied Redtooth.

Curious, Snotty walked up to the door to see who was paying him and his pals a visit. His eyes immediately widened in surprise once he realized who it was.

"Guys, come quick!" exclaimed Snotty.

"Is it the authorities?" questioned Redtooth.

"Actually, it's an old friend of ours! Look!" exclaimed Snotty.

As it turns out, it was Jennifer, who curiously enough was carrying a bag full of Neopoints. Snotty promptly opened the door for her.

"Funny...after being separated from you guys for so long, I feel Babaaish about you being here the whole time..." said Jennifer.

"Actually, we only arrived here recently...we were kind of busy so we haven't used this place in a long time. What's with the bag of cash?" inquired Redtooth.

"I decided to rob a bank like I do on a regular basis...why do you guys ask?" answered Jennifer.

"Er, about that...we decided not to commit larceny anymore. It's just not worth the trouble if you ask me. I'd rather do something legal for a change." answered Snotty.

"Why not? It's just so much fun! And we get a lot of Neopoints! What's there not to like about it? Why did you guys decide to throw in the towel?" exclaimed Jennifer.

"Yeah, about that, lately we've been feeling pretty guilty about what we've done in the past...and every time we commit a crime, the Heroes of Light always beats us up...it just doesn't feel worth it anymore." explained Redtooth.

"We did try to steal The Day of Giving at one point...but the locals made us listen to horrible music! We couldn't tolerate such terrible lyrics and we were eventually forced to give them all back. It was a pretty big waste of time if you ask me." said Snotty.

"Personally Rocky would rather go back to Tyrannia and smash some rocks with his club. Rocky's never gotten in trouble for that!" agreed Rocky.

"You actually make a good point...still, it seems like an odd thing for you guys to do. Then again, I did get chased by a bunch of cops last week...and I hear that nowadays they're being led by a deranged police officer that will beat the dung out of you just for littering." answered Jennifer.

"Well, to be honest, it took a while for me to get used to. I've probably been stealing from others far longer than you have." nodded Snotty.

"Hey, it looks like someone else is coming!" exclaimed Redtooth, who was peering out the window and wagging his tail.

"Two visitors in one day! I thought this was a hideout! Maybe we need to relocate to somewhere more hidden..." bellowed Rocky.

"Maybe we need to get a new lair or something...the Heroes of Light found this place pretty easily if you ask me..." said Snotty.

"Hmm?" questioned Jennifer.

Curious, all of the Villains of Darkness decided to look out the window to see who was arriving. As it turns out, it was a green Blumaroo wearing a dress.

It was Snotty's mother.

"You know, it's funny...she kind of looks like you, Snotty...only with lipstick on her lips...and of course there's the fact that she's wearing a dress... " pointed out Rocky.

Snotty's green skin suddenly turned white. All of a sudden, he was afraid. Very, very afraid.

"What's the matter? You look like you've seen a ghost all of a sudden." inquired Jennifer.

Immediately, Snotty started barricading the door so that said Blumaroo would be unable to get inside...

"Help me! You can't let her get inside this house no matter the costs! Barricade this place now!" demanded Snotty.

The other Villains of Darkness members became curious, but they nonetheless decided to give him a hand.

For a moment, it seemed like it would work. Snotty's Mother started knocking on the door furiously.

Unfortunately, the Villains of Darkness had no such luck. She promptly pulled out a rocket launcher and blew the barricade to pieces, sending the four Neopets flying in different directions.

"Is everyone alright? That explosion sent us all flying!" inquired Snotty.

"I think I might have a concussion." answered Redtooth.

"Good thing Rocky is as tough as rock...otherwise he might have gotten himself pretty messed up." said Rocky.

"Well, I'm not...I think I broke a few nails!" exclaimed Jennifer.

Snotty's Mother then stepped into the house, glaring at each of the Villains of Darkness as she did so. More than over, Snotty began to feel rather frightened. In fact, he curled himself up and began to whimper.

"Barricading your house from your own mother? I expected more from you my boy..." stated Snotty's Mother.

"Who the heck are you? Are you related to Snotty or sometihng?" inquired Redtooth.

"As a matter of fact, yes...My name is Bouvier Onyx Dementia...but you can simply refer to me as Snotty's Mother. I heard that you were planning on becoming a good guy, my son...and I am not pleased." she said.

"You owe us a new door, you freaking vandal!" exclaimed Jennifer.

She suddenly grabbed Snotty and lifted him in the air. Sweat promptly began flowing down the latter's face.

"What should we do, guys? She's got our leader!" inquired Rocky.

"Don't ask me what to do! I'm just as stumped as you are!" exclaimed Jennifer.

"Before you ask, I'm going to take charge of your would-be goody goodies...and I'm going to deal with those little pests you call the Heroes of Light myself considering how you fail at defeating them every time..." explained Snotty's Mother.

"Your last name is Dementia? That's weird..." inquired Jennifer.

"Yes, just like Redtooth's last name is Wolfman...Rocky's last name is Granite...and your last name is Crystal..." answered Snotty.

The other Villains of Darkness members simply shrugged.

"Now then, where was I? Ah yes...put me down, mother! Please! I'm begging you!" demanded Snotty.

"Very well." answered Snotty's Mother.

She then threw Snotty quite a distance...enough to leave him with stars around his head.

"Ow...did you really have to throw me so hard?" he questioned.

"I'm starting to see why Snotty ordered us to barricade as soon as she arrived...his mother is scary!" noted Redtooth.

"Now then, why don't you all sit back while I lure the Heroes of Light into my trap...that way you can finally learn how to topple your opponents and not be a bunch of babies." stated Snotty's Mother.

"Wait, you're going to set a trap for the Heroes of Light?" inquired Redtooth.

"Yes, like I said...you've proven yourselves to be remarkably incompetent at doing evil...that's why I've decided to set matters into my own hands...soon the Heroes of Light will regret the day that they decided to become heroes..." answered Snotty's mother.

"Rocky's got a really bad feeling about this." said Rocky.

_Meanwhile, on Mystery Island..._

"Well, we're finally arrived on the island...thanks for the help, Garin." said Bloony.

"Thanks...don't let that horrible slime monster succeed in his evil plans, OK?" asked Garin.

"Wouldn't want him to keep consuming more Neopets for his horrible plans." continued Jacques.

"We'll do the best we can." answered Cherry.

Looking around, the Heroes of Light noticed that there wasn't any sign of Deluge anywhere. Perhaps he hadn't arrived on the island yet? If so, they were pretty lucky. Still, they realized that irregardless they had to find Shuriken as soon as possible and warn him about Deluge.

Pretty soon the Heroes of Light saw the Mystery Island Training School. Curious, the Heroes of Light decided to check the signup list.

Soon enough they saw that Shuriken Katana was in the list...along with Ursula Puncher.

"You don't think that Ursula's training here, do you?" inquired Cherry.

"Well, it could be that it's simply a different Ursula. I mean, I'm sure many Neopets have the same name as her." pointed out Marvin.

"Actually, I think I see her right over there." said Bloony.

Suddenly, Ursula noticed the Heroes of Light, and she promptly started hugging Marvin.

"Marvin! Gosh, I'm so glad to see you again! I know that we've been hanging out ever since we defeated Lord Cataclysm...but still, I've missed you!" exclaimed Ursula.

"I've...missed you two...now let me breathe!" demanded Marvin.

Ursula then noticed Bloony and Cherry.

"I'm so glad to see you guys again! As you can see while you were gone I decided to train at the Mystery Island Training Dojo..." Ursula said.

"Yeah...about that, we're here to protect Shuriken...have you seen him?" inquired Cherry.

"Oh...right now he's with the Techo Master. Apparently he wanted to talk to him. I'm not exactly sure why though." explained Ursula.

"Well, you really need to talk to him ourselves. Right now he's in horrible danger!" exclaimed Marvin.

"Horrible danger? How come?" asked Ursula.

"Well, to be honest, he's not the only one in danger. In fact, right now Neopia is being attacked by an evil blob monster that eats everything in sight...including innocent Neopets. If we don't hurry, everyone in Neopia is going to be consumed!" bellowed Bloony.

"An evil blob monster? You're telling me that there's a slimy menace plaguing Neopia as we speak?" inquired Ursula.

"As a matter of fact, yes. You haven't seen a monster that matches that description, have you?" asked Cherry.

"Oh...well, to be honest, I haven't seen anything like that anywhere...I don't think Mystery Island has had a run-in with a gelatin monster over the past few days. I heard in the Neopian Times that several Neopets have vanished under mysterious circumstances." claimed Ursula.

"That was likely Deluge's work. He's been eating more and more Neopets to make himself more powerful. We need to put a stop to this as soon as possible or he's going to become too powerful for us to handle." warned Bloony.

"We believe that Deluge is heading to Mystery Island so that he can swallow Shuriken...according to Cherry he in particular wants to eat ex-Cult of Apocalypse members." explained Marvin.

"Ex-Cult Of Apocalypse members? You mean Shuriken, The Black Knight, Fallenova, Steven, and Professor Nyctus?" inquired Ursula.

"Actually, he already ate Professor Nyctus. I believe that's why he's become intelligent and keeps hiding himself from us...apparently he thinks it's too risky to attack us unless he keeps making himself more powerful." pointed out Bloony.

"I guess the only thing we can do now is prepare ourselves for his arrival...but how we do that?" inquired Cherry.

"I suppose we could train at the dojo for a while. Let's just ask Ryshu the Nimmo. I'm sure he wouldn't mind if he had a few new students training at the dojo. There are a lot of Neopets that come here..." suggested Bloony.

Sure enough, there he was, instructing the students while his master was away.

"Any of you have questions about today's lesson?" he inquired.

Suddenly, he noticed the Heroes of Light.

"Oh! Well if isn't for the Neopets that saved Neopia from Lord Cataclysm! How can I help you?" he inquired.

"We were just wondering if we could train at the dojo for a while." explained Marvin.

"I see...very well then. Just sign your names on that list over there and we can get started." answered Ryshu.

After getting his permission to train at the dojo...Bloony, Cherry, and Marvin wrote their first and last names on the registeration list.

"Your last name is Partyanimal? You don't seem to attend too many parties..." questioned Cherry.

"Yes...ironic, isn't it? Personally I think it's ironic that your last name is Belcher and that Marvin's last name is Gadgeteer." answered Bloony.

"I wonder about my last name sometimes too, to be honest. Then again it's not like I can help what my last name is." agreed Marvin.

"Yeah...Gadgeteer? Personally I'm curious about it myself...then again, my last name is Puncher...so why should I be questioning that?" nodded Ursula.

"I'm just glad that we're a team of four again. We're going to need all the help we can get if we want to stop Deluge from his horrible plans..." said Bloony.

_Speaking of Deluge..._

Deluge smiled as he arrived to Mystery Island. It had been a long trip, but now it was only a matter of time before he would find Shuriken and absorbed him like the many Neopets he had eaten in the past.

As he did so, he wondered if he should eat a few more Neopets, just in case. After all, Shuriken might try to fight back against him...and he was rather speedy. Not to mention he was probably guarded by the teachers and students of the Mystery Island Training School.

"Sorry buddy, but this isn't a winning ticket! You need your ticket to end with a zero, a two, or a five to win!" exclaimed the Tiki Tack Man. "And I'm not giving you a booby prize because I don't feel like it!"

"You stink! Your game is rigged I say! N omatter how many times I play this game I can never win! I'm going to tell my friends not to play your stupid game!" bellowed the angry Bruce as he left.

The Tiki Tack Man promptly frowned. It wasn't his fault that the Bruce got a losing ticket...was it? He was usually pretty generous whenever a Neopet lost a game. He began to wonder if he should create more winning tickets.

"Well, now to close up my shop for the day. I've had so many customers...and for some reason none of them seem to be able to win a winning ticket...I wonder why?" he talked to himself.

Suddenly, he noticed that for some strange reason, green slime seemed to be seeping into his hut. He began to wonder what was going on. Was there some kind of leak?

"Hmm? Is someone else there? I'm about to close my hut for today, so you won't be able to play a game of Tombola. Sorry." apologized the Tiki Tack Man.

Suddenly, the Tiki Tack Man noticed that more and more slime appeared to be seeping into the hut. He began to become more and more curious, until suddenly he found himself swallowed by the goop. Deluge once again smiled...

Shortly afterwards, the hut collapsed.

"I must be getting bigger than I thought...perfect, now to look for Shuriken...by while I'm at it I might as well look for ex-Cult of Apocalypse members as well..." noted Deluge.

Suddenly, he noticed that there were several of the Cult of Apocalypse members relaxing at the beach.

"Too easy." he thought.

"Say, did you just feel a chill go down your spine? I can't help but shake the feeling that something bad is going to happen soon..." asked a Cult of Apocalypse Mynci.

"I don't know, did you?" inquired a Cult of Apocalypse Meerca.

"Maybe you're just imagining things." suggested a Cult of Apocalypse Blumaroo.

Devouring the Cult of Apocalypse members as easily as he ate the Tiki Tack Man, Deluge smiled as he gained a substantial power boost. He then decided that he was ready to devour Shuriken. The only problem now was looking for him. Surely he was around Mystery Island somewhere...the only question was where exactly.

"I'd like to see him try to run from me...no matter where he runs, I will keep looking for him...and when I'm finished with him, I'll move on to the remaining Cult of Apocalypse members and eat them too..." he thought.

"And besides...even if he's not here...I'm sure there are more Neopets that I can eat on this island...won't that be a pleasure..."

Deluge then slithered his way through the island to search for the ninja that he wanted to devour so desperately.

_The Heroes of Light have arrived on Mystery Island...but as it turns out, Deluge has arrived there recently too...and of course, he's looking for Shuriken..._

_Meanwhile, Snotty's Mother has taken over the Villains of Darkness...what exactly could she be planning against the Heroes of Light?_

_I guess you're just going to have to wait and see like always..._


	14. Chapter 14: The Mother Of Evil

Saving Neopia II: Light And Darkness

_In this chapter, our heroes will receive a letter from Snotty's horrible mother...suffice to say this will distract them from fighting a certain slime monster that's eating everything in sight...will they come back in time to stop him?_

**Chapter 14: The Mother Of Evil**

Inside Deluge's stomach, curiously enough, were many Neopets. Apparently for some strange reason he did not have a digestion process, as he did not really need one considering he always grew larger and more powerful whenever he ate a Neopet.

"Where are we?" inquired a Bruce who was trapped inside Deluge.

"I don't know...it looks like we're inside some kind of slime monster..." questiioned the Mynci.

"Then how are we going to get out?" inquired the Bruce.

"I have no idea." answered the Mynci.

Unsurprisingly, many Neopets had been trapped inside Deluge's stomach...and were now floating inside of it.

"Let us out of here! I want my mommy!" demanded a Scorchio.

"I sure hope someone rescues us soon." said a Pteri.

"Me too." agreed a Korbat.

_Meanwhile on Mystery Island..._

"You got Neomail." said a mechanical voice.

"Hmm?" wondered Bloony. He never really received any Neomail...in fact, the last time he remembered getting Neomail was when the Villains Of Darkness challenged them to a duel.

"Villains of Darkness...they really need to be more original...of course, then again we did decide to call ourselves the Heroes of Light...and since they're our evil counterparts go figure." thought Bloony.

Dear Bloony,

I'm going to destroy Roo Island with a giant laser, and there's nothing that you can do about it! I dare you to try to stop me if I can! Right now we're located at a shack right outside of Neopia Central in the forest...You should know where it is, considering that you've probably been there before...

I look forward to seeing you there!

Sincerely,

Someone Whose Hated You For A Long Time

"It must be the Villains of Darkness again. And just when I thought I had finally defeated them for good...and I thought that was going to be the final battle between us too!" exclaimed Bloony.

"What's the matter?" inquired Cherry.

"It's the Villains of Darkness...they want to vaporize Roo Island with a giant laser...never mind how in Neopia they actually managed to get their hands on a giant laser beam of doom...anyways, it looks like we're going to have to leave Mystery Island for a bit." said the Blumaroo.

"But what about the horrible slime monster that wants to eat Shuriken?" questioned the Mynci.

"I don't think it should take long considering who we're dealing with...besides, we already knew where their hideout is, don't we?" inquired Bloony.

"Good point...I don't think we should leave Shuriken behind for long though." noted Ursula.

"Right. Which is why we need to hurry." agreed Bloony.

"I can make an invention to teleport us directly there if you want." said Marvin.

"Sounds good...wait, why didn't you do that so that we could teleport to Mystery Island in the first place! We could have saved a lot of time doing that...and maybe we wouldn't have been attacked by those pirates! " exclaimed the yellow Blumaroo.

"Well, you wanted to use a boat...and it didn't really occur to me at the time...I'm sorry if I've inconvenienced you guys..." said Marvin.

Bloony sighed. "Just hurry up and make the teleporter so that we can get there already..."

Marvin nodded and he went to work.

A few minutes later, he had successfully built the teleporter, which was already fired up and was ready to use.

"Good, we should have more than enough time before the slime monster arrives now." said Bloony.

"I sure hope so." nodded Cherry.

After successfully teleporting to their destination, Bloony decides to enter the shack so that he could scout it. However, he quickly noticed that for some strange reason, it now looked much more like a laboratory than a shack. Did the Villains of Darkness redesign their lair recently?

"How very odd..." thought the Blumaroo.

After surveying the newly-designed evil lair, he ultimately shrugged and decided to walk right in. If it was just the Villains of Darkness, then how hard could stopping them be?

"You sure you want to go in there alone?" inquired the Chia.

"It's just the Villains of Darkness. I don't think they should cause me too much trouble." answered Bloony.

His question would be answered shortly after he entered the laboratory of evil.

"Alright, where are you guys? You're really going a little far this time...since when do you destroy islands anyway?" questioned the Blumaroo.

Suddenly, he noticed what appeared to be Snotty on a chair with his back facing him.

"Not showing your face, huh? I guess you must be afraid of me..." said Bloony as he went to turn the chair around.

But as it turns out, it wasn't actually Snotty, but it was a dummy.

"What the-"

Suddenly, a cage fell from the sky and landed on top of Bloony, trapping him.

"OK, Snotty appears to be a bit smarter than usual...he set a trap for me and I actually fell for it..." noted the Blumaroo.

"You don't say?" answered Snotty's Mother, as she suddenly stepped out of the shadows.

"Wait...why are you wearing a woman's dress, Snotty? I don't ever recall you being a crossdresser..." questioned Bloony.

"I'm not Snotty...I'm his mother!" answered the evil matriach Blumaroo.

Bloony looked rather surprised.

"Wait, you're his mother?!" exclaimed the yellow Blumaroo. "Well then, I'm really surprised how similar you look to your son...it's a really uncanny resemblance, I say,...anyways, if you're his mother, I don't think I want to meet your husband..." said Bloony.

"I actually dipped my husband in acid not too long ago." answered Snotty's Mother.

Bloony promptly shivered in revulsion. He then noticed that the Villains of Darkness were in fact watching nearby...but they appeared to be rather frightened, and he then realized that something was wrong.

Fortunately for Bloony, he was able to break the lock on his cage, allowing him to break free...however, he became a bit suspicious when he noticed that Snotty's Mother didn't seem terribly surprised. Nonetheless, he decided to fight back against the worst parent in history.

"Sorry, but you're going to have to do better than that to restrain me." said Bloony. "Now then, let's get ready to rumble so that I can thwart your plans, shall we?"

The Villains of Darkness immediately ran up to Bloony, but surprisingly, Snotty's Mother held them back.

"Why did you do that?" inquired Bloony.

Snotty's Mother then went over to what appeared to be a monitor of some kind. Bloony scratched his head, not recalling that being there the last time he decided to pay the Villains of Darkness a visit.

"Trying to solve your problems with violence, are we? Real smart. But if you insist...two can play at that game." said Snotty's Mother.

The monitor went on...and much to his shock, Bloony discovered that not only had the laser gun she had mentioned in the letter had already been pointed towards the island, and it looked like it was fully operational too.

"I suggest that you cooperate with me, Bloony...otherwise you might find yourself homeless." said Snotty's Mother.

It was at that point Bloony realized that he had been duped. She in fact wanted the Heroes of Light to come to her shack, as it had been a trap the entire time.

Bloony sighed and reluctantly agreed to her demands. What else was he going to do? Fight against Snotty's Mother and watch his island become vaporized along with its inhabitants? He'd be lucky if it simply scoured the surface.

"Fine...but what exactly do you want me to do?" inquired Bloony.

"I want you to be my slave...you do me favors, and your island is safe. But if you fight against me, your island is gone. Agreed?" explained Snotty's Mother.

Bloony sighed and noddded in agreement. Again, he had no idea what to do. He only wished that he had brought his friends with him so that they could help him out of this. Then again, if he insisted on bringing them with him, maybe they would have been captured as well.

"Good. Now then, Villains of Darkness, lock the slave in his cage, shall we?" inquired Snotty's Mother.

The Villains of Darkness reluctantly did as Bloony asked. Apparently, they were Snotty's Mother's slaves as much as he was now.

As Bloony sat in his cage, he began to think of himself what exactly what he was he going to do. There had to be a way to get out of this, but he just couldn't think of any options.

"How am I going to stop Snotty's Mother without destroying my own home?" inquired the Blumaroo.

_Meanwhile outside the house..._

"Bloony's been in there for a long time...I'm starting to get worried about him." said Cherry.

"I sure hope he's going to be OK, then. Maybe the Villains of Darkness managed to dogpile him?" asked Marvin.

"I don't think they'd be competent enough to even think about doing something like that to be honest...they always seem to stink at villainy despite their team name..." said Ursula.

Suddenly, Officer Lenny came by.

"Excuse me, you three, have you seen these three Neopets?" inquired Officer Lenny, who handed them a few wanted posters.

As it turns out, the Villains of Darkness had bounties on their heads...and they were worth a lot of Neopoints. The Heroes of Light shrugged and decided to tell Lenny where their hideout was.

"It was right over there? Well I feel a little Babaaish...but thanks for the help anyway." said the Lenny as he handed the Neopets a lot of Neopoints.

"Sweet, we're rich!" exclaimed Marvin.

"But what are we going to spend it on?" inquired Ursula.

"I don't know." answered Marvin.

Ursula sweatdropped.

"Now if you excuse me I'm going to get some backup so that we can storm this place." said the Lenny as he went to report back to the police station.

"Sounds good!" exclaimed Cherry.

"I wonder when they'll show up..." said Marvin.

"Let's hope they show up soon..." agreed Ursula.

_Meanwhile inside the shack..._

Much to Bloony's disgust, he was currently being forced to clean out a Kadoatie's litter box. He already had to rub Snotty's Mother's rancid feet, had to clean the entire shack, and had to do an enormous amount of laundry.

"When will this end?!" exclaimed Bloony.

"Stop complaining and keep working!" demanded Snotty's Mother as she went to her inner sanctum.

All the while, the Villains of Darkness wondered if they should do something.

"I really don't think he deserves this..." said Snotty.

"Well, he did keep interfering with our plans that involve robbing people and whatnot." pointed out Redtooth.

"Well, I still don't think he deserves this...sure, I would have liked to finally defeat the Heroes of Light...but not like this!" exclaimed the Blumaroo. "I would have rather taken him down in a duel...rather than force him to surrender by threatening his hometown..."

"Rocky agrees! Rocky would rather crush green Mynci than threaten his friends and family." agreed Rocky.

"Maybe we should do something about all this..." suggested Jennifer.

"But if I did that, I would have to stand up to my mother..." worried Snotty.

"Aren't you tired of being abused by her all the time?" questioned Redtooth.

"Well, yes...but-"

"Then let's do this!" exclaimed Rocky.

Snotty shrugged and decided to listen to his teammates' advice...even though he personally felt that this would result in him being in a lot of trouble.

As it turns out, Snotty's Mother had decided to have Dennis keep an eye on Bloony while she plotted world domination.

"Funny, by making you a slave my mistress actually put me out of a job...but at least she had the decency to give me another one." said the Kacheek.

"What does it matter? If I try to escape Snotty's Mother will probably just set off the giant laser gun and Roo Island will go kaboom." murmured Bloony.

"She figured that she couldn't be too careful." answered Dennis.

"Got that right." answered Snotty.

"Huh?" inquired Dennis.

Suddenly, Rocky hit Dennis on the head with his club and knocked him out cold. Redtooth then tied him up, gagged him, and shoved him in a conveniently-located closet.

"Why are you helping me?" inquired Bloony as Jennifer picked the lock in his cage.

"We figured that Snotty's Mother was going too far so we decided to give you a hand." answered Snotty.

"OK...I'm not really forward to working with you after everything you've done to be honest..." nodded Bloony.

"Funny, that's what I was about to say. Now let's stop my mother, shall we?" inquired Snotty.

"But if I try to do that, she'll use the laser beam of doom on my home!" exclaimed Bloony.

"Oh, that...let's take care of that first, shall we?" answered Redtooth.

Immediately, he went over to the monitor and pressed what appeared to be a self-destruct button. Shortly afterwards, the laser gun aimed at the island suddenly exploded.

"Why didn't I notice that?" wondered the Blumaroo.

"I don't know...but my mother told us a million times not to press it so I figured why not." answered Snotty.

"I should probably get my teammates." said Bloony.

Suddenly, the Heroes of Light entered the shack. Apparently they decided to check how he was doing.

"Well, speak of Dr. Sloth." he thought.

"You OK, Bloony? You were in there a long time..." said Cherry.

She then noticed the Villains of Darkness, and got ready to fight them along with Marvin and Ursula.

"Wait, guys...I don't think we have to fight them this time. Believe it or not, they're not actually the real threat there." said Bloony.

"What?" inquired Marvin as he slowly lowered his weapon.

"It's my mother! She's plotting something horrible as we speak!" exclaimed Snotty.

"What is it?" inquired Ursula.

The Villains Of Darkness explained the plan to the Heroes Of Light.

"Oh dear...it looks like we're going to have to do something about it indeed." agreed Bloony.

"Then we've got no time to lose." nodded Snotty.

_Meanwhile in Snotty's Mother's Inner Sanctum..._

"Finally, my invention is complete...and with the leader of the Heroes of Light out of the way, I can finally conquer all of Neopia once and for all!" exclaimed Snotty's Mother.

As it turns out, for some strange reason, there was a giant mutant Grarrl in the room sleeping inside an equally giant tube full of green liquid.

Snotty's Mother pressed a button, and suddenly the green liquid holding the Grarrl in suspended animation was drained. The ferocious predator then opened its eyes and let out an enormous roar, shattering the glass in the process.

Fortunately for the twisted female Blumaroo, she had designed the Grarrl to obey the first thing it sees so that it wouldn't swallow her whole. It sat down and waited for her to give it a command.

"Alright then...let me think of a name for you...I know...I shall call you...Doomzilla! Now let me climb aboard!" exclaimed the scientist mad enough to give Professor Nyctus a run for his Neopoints.

The Grarrl nodded, and let Snotty's Mother ride aboard its back. It roared once again and marched right out of the shack, leaving a gaping hole in the wall in the process.

Unsurprisingly, the Heroes of Light and the Villains of Darkness both heard the commotion, and wondered what was going on. They looked outside and noticed Doomzilla stomping its way through the forest and towards Neopia Central.

"Funny, I feel like I've seen a creature just like that in a movie..." questioned Marvin.

"We can watch a movie later. For now, we have to stop that thing before it destroys all of Neopia Central...sheesh, first Roo Island and now this!" exclaimed Bloony.

"But how are we going to fight it? It's too big!" inquired Redtooth.

"Well, my mother has some spare mechanical parts that Marvin could probably use to make robots..." said Snotty.

Marvin nodded and immediately went into the laboratory. He came back a few minutes later...with two robots that resembled yellow Blumaroos just like Bloony himself.

"I see that you're awfully fond of me..." noted Bloony.

"How are we supposed to tell them apart? Just curious." said Snotty.

Marvin shrugged and started repainting one of the Blumaroo robots...and eventually, it looked just like Snotty instead of Bloony.

"Much better." said the green Blumaroo.

The Heroes of Light and the Villains of Darkness then climbed inside the Blumaroo robots, ready to head to Neopia Central and foil Snotty's Mother once and for all.

_Meanwhile..._

"So, did you sink their ship like I asked you too? I don't have all day, you know." inquired Willis as Captain Sharptooth walked into his office.

"Aye! Their ship should be in Davy Jones' Locker by now. Me and me crew made short work of them" nodded the evil pirate captain.

"Very good then. Here is your reward. Hope you enjoy." said the Bruce as he handed Captain Sharptooth a treasure chest.

The pirate Jetsam opened the treasure chest, and discovered that there were many Neopoints inside. Suffice to say he was rather pleased. Apparently he had hit the motherload for the time being.

"Pleasure doing business with ye, me hearty. Me and me crew look forward to plundering with ye in the near future, yarr." said Captain Sharptooth.

"Oh believe me, I'll be working with you again soon...you wouldn't believe how many ships have valuable goods in them...personally I wonder if I should become a pirate myself. Of course, being the head of a criminal syndicate has its perks too..." nodded the Bruce.

"Walk the plank ye landlubbers!" bellowed the talking Uni head, who for some reason was now wearing an eyepatch and a pirate's hat.

"I got a better idea. Why don't you keep your stupid mouth shut!" bellowed the Bruce.

"Aww...he wants to become a pirate just like me...yarr..." said Captain Sharptooth.

"Believe me, I don't think that you would want him on your ship. He's as annoying as Neopianly possible." answered Willis.

"Eh, suit yerself then." answered the Jetsam.

_What's this? It appears that the Heroes Of Light and the Villains of Darkness have decided to work together for a change...and of course, Captain Sharptooth has reported his apparent victory to Willis...it's not going to be long before he finds out the Heroes Of Light aren't out of his flippers yet though, trust me._

_But until then, can the Heroes Of Light and the Villains of Darkness stop Snotty's Mother from rampaging throughout Neopia Central? And can they make it back in time to stop Deluge from eating Shuriken..._

_Well, as usual, you'll receive answers for these questions in the next chapter...if you're looking forward to it, of course..._


End file.
